emancipate

American  

[ih-man-suh-payt] / 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  

/ 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

Bynes' home environment was so troubling that she attempted to emancipate from her parents when she was around 16 or 17.

From Salon ● Mar. 23, 2024

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

Lafayette had already attempted without success to convince George Washington to emancipate his slaves and allow them to live in freedom on an island Lafayette offered to purchase.

From "In the Shadow of Liberty" by Kenneth C. Davis

“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

The New York Herald said of Lincoln’s order: “While the proclamation leaves slavery untouched where his decree can be enforced, he emancipates slaves where his decree cannot be enforced.”

From Washington Post ● Jan. 1, 2019

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

The “truth” disclosed in Christ, and which emancipates from sin, must not be too carefully defined.

From The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St. John, Vol. I by Marcus Dods

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

The author then moves on to Britain, which emancipated itself through the Protestant Reformation and became what he calls a “property despotism.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026

There is a lot of doublespeak, that as women, we have never been as emancipated and free to do what we want as we are today.

From Salon ● Apr. 18, 2025

Most of the students were children of immigrant Jews who preferred to regard themselves as having been emancipated from the fenced-off ghetto mentality typical of the other Jewish parochial schools in Brooklyn.

From "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok

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

Proceeds from the auction are intended to finance a memorial garden honoring Mr. Mandela, who dedicated most of his life to emancipating South Africa from white minority rule, the organizers said.

From New York Times ● Jan. 17, 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

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

It was Grattan's fervent wish that the Volunteers, their emancipating task accomplished, should dissolve and leave the parliament to carry out its work.

From The New Irish Constitution by J. H. Morgan

Related Words

• liberate
• loosen