ACQUIT (acquitted, acquitting)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: acquitted    , acquitting   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does acquit mean? 

• ACQUIT (verb)
  The verb ACQUIT has 2 senses:

1. pronounce not guilty of criminal charges

2. behave in a certain manner

  Familiarity information: ACQUIT used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ACQUIT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they acquit    ... he / she / it acquits   
Past simple: acquitted   
Past participle: acquitted   
-ing form: acquitting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Pronounce not guilty of criminal charges

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

acquit; assoil; clear; discharge; exculpate; exonerate

Context example:

The suspect was cleared of the murder charges

Hypernyms (to "acquit" is one way to...):

judge; label; pronounce (pronounce judgment on)

"Acquit" entails doing...:

evaluate; judge; pass judgment (form a critical opinion of)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "acquit"):

vindicate (clear of accusation, blame, suspicion, or doubt with supporting proof)

whitewash (exonerate by means of a perfunctory investigation or through biased presentation of data)

purge (clear of a charge)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s somebody of something

Sentence example:

They want to acquit the prisoners

Antonym:

convict (find or declare guilty)

Derivation:

acquittal (a judgment of not guilty)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Behave in a certain manner

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

acquit; bear; behave; carry; comport; conduct; deport

Context example:

They conducted themselves well during these difficult times

Hypernyms (to "acquit" is one way to...):

bear; carry; hold (support or hold in a certain manner)

act; move (perform an action, or work out or perform (an action))

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "acquit"):

fluster (be flustered; behave in a confused manner)

assert; put forward (insist on having one's opinions and rights recognized)

deal (behave in a certain way towards others)

walk around (behave in a certain manner or have certain properties)

pose; posture (behave affectedly or unnaturally in order to impress others)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

 Context examples 

You will soon hear enough from another quarter to know where lies the blame; and I hope will acquit your brother of everything but the folly of too easily thinking his affection returned.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

I rose with all alacrity, to acquit myself of this commission.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I cannot acquit him of that duty; nor could I think well of the man who should omit an occasion of testifying his respect towards anybody connected with the family.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Mr. Crawford would have fully acquitted her conduct in refusing him; but this, though most material to herself, would be poor consolation to Sir Thomas.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

James McCarthy was acquitted at the Assizes on the strength of a number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and submitted to the defending counsel.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Edricson, if God spare you, I think that you will acquit yourself well.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She is to be tried today, and I hope, I sincerely hope, that she will be acquitted.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Neither had I so soon learned the gratitude of courtiers, to persuade myself, that his majesty’s present seventies acquitted me of all past obligations.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

It was an awkward ceremony at any time to be receiving wedding visits, and a man had need be all grace to acquit himself well through it.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Sometimes she could believe Willoughby to be as unfortunate and as innocent as herself, and at others, lost every consolation in the impossibility of acquitting him.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)