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

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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)

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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

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 Evelyn Underhill

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

My children received survivor’s benefits until they emancipated.

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

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

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

From Washington Post ● Apr. 6, 2022

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

From New York Times ● Jan. 21, 2022

You, who talk of emancipating your serfs, and ‘doing something for posterity,’ indeed!

From Uncle's dream; And The Permanent Husband by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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Related Words

• liberate
• loosen

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