absolve
Americanverb (used with object)
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absolves,
present (3rd person singular)
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absolved,
past participle, past
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absolving
present participle
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to free from guilt or blame or their consequences.
The court absolved her of guilt in his death.
- Antonyms:
- blame
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to set free or release, as from some duty, obligation, or responsibility (usually followed byfrom ).
to be absolved from one's oath.
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to grant pardon for.
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Ecclesiastical.
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to grant or pronounce remission of sins to.
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to remit (a sin) by absolution.
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to declare (censure, as excommunication) removed.
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verb
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(usually foll by from) to release from blame, sin, punishment, obligation, or responsibility
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to pronounce not guilty; acquit; pardon
Synonym Usage
Absolve, acquit, exonerate all mean to free from blame. Absolve is a general word for this idea. To acquit is to release from a specific and usually formal accusation: The court must acquit the accused if there is not enough evidence of guilt. To exonerate is to consider a person clear of blame or consequences for an act (even when the act is admitted), or to justify the person for having done it: to be exonerated for a crime committed in self-defense.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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absolvesimple
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absolvessimple
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have absolvedperfect
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has absolvedperfect
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am absolvingprogressive
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are absolvingprogressive
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is absolvingprogressive
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have been absolvingperfect progressive
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has been absolvingperfect progressive
Past
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absolvedsimple
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had absolvedperfect
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was absolvingprogressive
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were absolvingprogressive
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had been absolvingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of absolve
1525–35; < Latin absolvere, equivalent to ab- ab- + solvere to loosen; see solve
Explanation
To be absolved is to be let off the hook, to be set free from a certain obligation or to be forgiven for a wrongdoing. The Church may absolve you of your sins, but that won't absolve you of the need to attend mass. The Latin absolvere, which means "to set free," is the root of the word absolve. In the religious sense, to be absolved means to be truly forgiven in the eyes of the Lord, which must feel like being set free. In a more mundane everyday usage, absolve can be used to describe being let off the hook. For instance, putting a campaign poster in your window does not absolve you of the responsibility to vote.
Vocabulary lists containing absolve
The Declaration of Independence
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Romeo and Juliet
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"The Declaration of Independence," Vocabulary from the historical document
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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.
See Examples For:
But in the letter to GKN executives, the county argued that the donation did not absolve the company of liability or of costs incurred by taxpayers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2026
The Student Group Claim argues this basic principle of consumer law overrides any clauses in university contracts which seek to absolve the institution from responsibility for disruption.
From BBC ● Feb. 16, 2026
However, the Nuremberg tribunals after World War II established in international law that obeying an unlawful order does not absolve an individual of responsibility for atrocities.
From Slate ● Dec. 3, 2025
That the prison had been overcrowded at the time didn’t absolve it from its responsibility to provide the plaintiff, whose doctor had advised to avoid tobacco smoke, with a smoke-free environment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 7, 2025
I know it doesn’t absolve anyone of anything, but the Kabul we lived in in those days was a strange world, one in which some things mattered more than the truth.
From "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini
A fractious national legislature absolves anyone of the responsibility of trying.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
Martinique official Serge Letchimy hailed a vote that he said had come "to shatter a system that tramples on the truth, absolves the guilty, and scorns the victims".
From Barron's ● Jun. 2, 2026
In order to receive their raw footage, Ms Stanton has asked clients to sign a "contract" that absolves Wallflower Weddings Videography of editing their final film.
From BBC ● Jan. 6, 2025
“The ruling was not for lack of evidence, but rather on procedural jurisdictional grounds. It by no means absolves Lizzo of the egregious claims that occurred on her watch.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 20, 2024
Saying kaddish and sitting shiva, that absolves them of any responsibility for you.
From "The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother" by James McBride
Can you imagine Magnum PI’s Tom Selleck or Burt Reynolds absolved of body hair?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
“The beauty of this narrative was that it not only absolved Jefferson and his fellow slaveholders of their sins; it absolved America as a whole,” Mr. Rasenberger writes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
Mohamed Salah has been pinpointed as one factor in Liverpool's slide, but he can be absolved here.
From BBC ● Nov. 22, 2025
The two official inquiries, one of which was commissioned by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, absolved MI5 and its officers of deliberate wrongdoing.
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2025
My stepfather’s final admonition to me went unheeded as I absolved myself of all responsibility and stayed out of the house as much as possible, thus avoiding the emotional impact of watching Mommy suffer.
From "The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother" by James McBride
As you suggested, this is often referred to as an “act of God” — absolving Adam of any negligence/responsibility.
From MarketWatch ● May 28, 2026
But that may have been the actor’s way of absolving himself of his monstrous off-screen behavior.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 12, 2026
But he feared a ban would easily be overcome by tech-savvy teens, at the same time absolving parents of responsibility.
From Barron's ● Jan. 19, 2026
The women in the film, Renn's mother, Zoe, and Leigh, absorb most of Renn's guilt, often absolving him.
From Salon ● Jun. 9, 2023
I walk away from her, guilt on my hands, absolving myself: I’m a good person.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
Definitions 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.
