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

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

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

He will discover that it emancipates him from all dogmas--sometimes from all morality--and at the same time that it is very superstitious.

From Practical Mysticism A Little Book for Normal People by Underhill, Evelyn

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

What was needed—what Emily needed—was a woman emancipated from pretense, a woman who could show herself to be a man.

From "Educated" by Tara Westover

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

From Salon ● Aug. 19, 2024

She ran away to New York as a young teen, and spent time in the Louisiana Training Institute for Girls in Pineville before emancipating at age 18.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2022

It also calls it “an amalgamation of cultures, times and ideas, emancipating them from the limits of regular classifications.”

From New York Times ● Apr. 27, 2022

“I Color Myself Different” is really about the emancipating power of self-love.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 6, 2022

Assist, therefore, first of all, in emancipating the national schools, and in securing for the community the free choice of pastors, and keep abreast of the spirit of the people and of the times.

From John Ronge: The Holy Coat Of Treves New German-Catholic Chruch by Anonymous

Related Words

• liberate
• loosen