• IPA: /əˈsɔɪl/

assoil (assoils, present participle assoiling; past and past participle assoiled)

1. (transitive, archaic) To absolve, acquit; to release from blame or sin.

   • acquitted and assoiled from the guilt

   • Many persons think themselves fairly assoiled, because they are […] not of scandalous lives.

2. (archaic) To set free, release.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.x:

     But first thou must a season fast and pray, / Till from her hands the spright assoiled is [...].

3. To solve; to clear up.
   • 1647, Theodore de la Guard [pseudonym; Nathaniel Ward], The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America. […], London: Printed by J[ohn] D[ever] & R[obert] I[bbitson] for Stephen Bowtell, […], OCLC 560031272 ↗; The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America (Force’s Collection of Historical Tracts; vol. III, no. 8), 5th edition, reprinted at Boston in N. England: For Daniel Henchman, […]; [Washington, D.C.: W. Q. Force], 1713 (1844 printing), OCLC 800593321 ↗, page 16 ↗:

     [O]thers, held very good men, are at a dead stand, not knowing what to do or say; and are therefore called Seekers, looking for new Nuntio's from Christ, to assoil these benighted questions, and to give new Orders for new Churches.

   • Any child might soon be able to assoil this riddle.

4. To expiate; to atone for.

   • Let each act assoil a fault.

5. To remove; to put off.

   • She soundly slept, and careful thoughts did quite assoil.

• assoilzie

assoil (assoils, present participle assoiling; past and past participle assoiled)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To soil or stain; to make dirty.