acquitted
Americanadjective
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of acquitted
Explanation
An acquitted defendant is off the hook. If you're on trial for a crime and you're found "not guilty," then you're acquitted and you can go free. When you have been labeled acquitted, that means the jury has found you not guilty of the crime and legally blameless. The word gained notoriety in the highly publicized 1995 trial of the former football star O. J. Simpson, accused of murdering his wife and her friend. Simpson’s attorney’s mantra to the jury was "If the glove doesn't fit, you must acquit," referring to a glove connected to the murder.
Vocabulary lists containing acquitted
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This Week In Words: September 28–October 4, 2019
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Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Her brother, Ndilinasho Joseph, was acquitted on all charges.
From BBC ● Nov. 2, 2026
A onetime Interior secretary named Albert Fall was convicted of taking bribes from Doheny and another oilman for no-bid drilling there, and though Doheny himself was acquitted twice, his reputation never recovered.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2026
"In particular, it concluded that the appellant cannot rely on the fact that another individual -- who had also faced prosecution in connection with the events in Guatemala -- was acquitted in Austria."
From Barron's ● Oct. 22, 2026
If millions are wagered on the belief that a defendant will be acquitted, could that make a jury more reluctant to convict?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026
State courts overturned his conviction and death sentence, and he was subsequently acquitted of all charges and released.
From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
