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

“She’s a Black woman who found ways to liberate and emancipate herself in this society, in this world, on her own terms, and that’s what I take away from her legacy,” said Christovale.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 14, 2025

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

“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

Death, according to Socrates,282 either extinguishes life or emancipates it from the thraldom of the body.

From History of European Morals From Augustus to Charlemagne (Vol. 1 of 2) by William Edward Hartpole Lecky

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

Abraham practically brings the house down with “Independently Owned,” an anthem to her character’s emancipated spirit.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2025

Or maybe these emancipated black men were just telling their listeners, especially the white ones, things they wanted to hear.

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

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

Latching on to the emancipating power of the word "semi," she wrote a "Semi-Homemade" cookbook, and then another.

From Salon ● Aug. 19, 2024

“When kids are emancipating, they want to leave everything to do with their youth behind,” she said.

From New York Times ● Jan. 21, 2022

Robbie said she reveled in the chance to put a different spin on Quinn, considering the newfound freedom she now has since emancipating herself from the emotional grips of Mr. J.

From Fox News ● Aug. 5, 2021

At its Congress in Brussels in 1868 it declared that a strike was not a means of completely emancipating the labourers, but was often a necessity in the present situation of labour and capital.

From Contemporary Socialism by John Rae

Related Words

• liberate
• loosen