emancipate

American  

[ih-man-suh-peyt] / ɪˈmæn səˌpeɪt /

verb (used with object)

emancipates, present (3rd person singular) emancipated, past participle, past emancipating present participle

1. to free from restraint, influence, or the like.

2. to free (a person) from bondage or slavery.

3. Roman and Civil Law. to terminate paternal control over.

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emancipate British  

/ -trɪ, ɪˈmænsɪpətərɪ, ɪˈmænsɪˌpeɪt /

verb

1. to free from restriction or restraint, esp social or legal restraint

2. (often passive) to free from the inhibitions imposed by conventional morality

3. to liberate (a slave) from bondage

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Synonym Usage

See release.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• emancipator
  noun
• emancipated
  adjective
• emancipative
  adjective
• emancipatory
  adjective
• nonemancipative
  adjective
• unemancipative
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• emancipating
  present
• emancipated
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• emancipate
  simple
• emancipates
  simple
• have emancipated
  perfect
• has emancipated
  perfect
• am emancipating
  progressive
• are emancipating
  progressive
• is emancipating
  progressive
• have been emancipating
  perfect progressive
• has been emancipating
  perfect progressive

Past

• emancipated
  simple
• had emancipated
  perfect
• was emancipating
  progressive
• were emancipating
  progressive
• had been emancipating
  perfect progressive

Future

• will emancipate
  simple
• will have emancipated
  perfect
• will be emancipating
  progressive
• will have been emancipating
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of emancipate

First recorded in 1615–25; from Latin ēmancipātus (past participle of ēmancipāre ) “freed from control,” equivalent to ē- “out of, from” ( see e- ¹) + man(us) “hand” + -cip- (combining form of capere “to seize”) + -ātus past participle suffix ( see -ate ¹)

Explanation

If you emancipate someone, you set them free from something. At the end of the Civil War, slaves were emancipated and became free men and women. If you break down emancipate, you have e- "out," -man- from the Latin manus "hand," and -cip- from the Latin verb "to take." Put it together, and you have "to be taken out of someone's hands" — a good definition of freedom. The American Revolution was about colonists emancipating themselves from British rule. As a legal term, if a child is emancipated, he or she is declared independent from parental control.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

emancipate emancipates emancipated emancipating

Following the French Revolution, much of Western Europe began to emancipate their Jews—but by the mid-19th century, it became clear that the initial promise of emancipation had not brought about the dreamed-for safety.

From Slate ● Dec. 10, 2023

How were you able to emancipate yourself from shame?

From New York Times ● Dec. 6, 2023

Even if there were an evolutionary link between meat consumption and becoming human, we should be able to emancipate ourselves from it today.

From Scientific American ● Oct. 25, 2023

The Anthropocene engine has allowed humans to emancipate ourselves from many of the negative feedback mechanisms that otherwise would have kept the population's growth in check.

From Salon ● Nov. 16, 2022

The higher figure produces a total cost of about $140 million to emancipate the entire slave population in 1790.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis

“When I do that, it emancipates me. When I put it in my films, I get rid of it.”

From New York Times ● Jan. 27, 2023

“He emancipates and lifts you up to live your American Dream.”

From Washington Post ● Aug. 24, 2020

And the third, optimistically entitled ‘The robot emancipates itself’, explores their present status and looks to the future.

From Nature ● Apr. 26, 2018

Is a society that, in many ways, emancipates women from marriage, and gives them sexual freedom, actually producing glorified 1950s housewives who have no choices other than motherhood?

From The Guardian ● Apr. 1, 2017

For if it once emancipates itself from the yoke of feeling, it soon becomes altogether lawless, and disperses its efforts in every direction in the satisfaction of a vain curiosity.

From The Contemporary Review, Volume 36, September 1879 by Various

The 54-year-old pastor, a former rector of the Christian University of Sumba, wants atas to be emancipated.

From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026

Now all my kids have been emancipated for seven years.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 18, 2026

For Pontormo, who studied with Leonardo da Vinci and was influenced by Michelangelo and Dürer, it’s the painting that shows him stylistically emancipated from those giants.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026

Her third great-grandfather Dean Harris was likely born into slavery in Georgia around 1835 and was emancipated after the Civil War.

From Salon ● Feb. 7, 2024

In history class, Gogol has learned that European immigrants had their names changed at Ellis Island, that slaves renamed themselves once they were emancipated.

From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri

Abraham Lincoln fibbed as well, telling newspaper readers in 1862 that he was not considering emancipating the Confederacy’s enslaved people when he’d already decided to do so.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 11, 2024

He goes from one place to the next, with the hopes of emancipating himself from drama and distraction.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 10, 2023

A brilliant colorist, he became known for emancipating his paintings from the flat rectilinearity imposed by wood stretchers.

From New York Times ● Jun. 27, 2022

Brown, who gained attention with her innovative bestseller "Good and Cheap," aptly titles her emancipating latest work "Good Enough. A Cookbook."

From Salon ● Jan. 16, 2022

I have just mentioned that most honourable one emancipating the Roman Catholics of Great Britain.

From England, Canada and the Great War by Desjardins, Louis-Georges

Related Words

• liberate
• loosen