English
discharge
Pronunciation
  • (RP)
    • (verb) IPA: /dɪsˈtʃɑːdʒ/
    • (noun) IPA: /ˈdɪstʃɑːdʒ/
  • (America)
    • (verb) enPR: dĭschärj', IPA: /dɪsˈtʃɑɹdʒ/
    • (noun) enPR: dĭs'chärj, IPA: /ˈdɪstʃɑɹdʒ/
Verb

discharge (discharges, present participle discharging; past and past participle discharged)

  1. To accomplish or complete, as an obligation.
    • 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare, act 3 scene 1
      O most dear mistress, / The sun will set before I shall discharge / What I must strive to do.
  2. To free of a debt, claim, obligation, responsibility, accusation, etc.; to absolve; to acquit; to forgive; to clear.
    • Discharged of business, void of strife.
    • In one man's fault discharge another man of his duty.
  3. To send away (a creditor) satisfied by payment; to pay one's debt or obligation to.
    • c. 1596–1598, William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene ii]:
      If he had / The present money to discharge the Jew.
  4. To set aside; to annul; to dismiss.
    • 18, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 12, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify ), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, OCLC 1069526323 ↗:
  5. To expel or let go.
    • Feeling in other cases discharges itself in indirect muscular actions.
  6. To let fly, as a missile; to shoot.
    • c. 1603–1604, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act II, scene i]:
      They do discharge their shot of courtesy.
    • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. In Six Volumes, volume (please specify ), London: Printed by A[ndrew] Millar, […], OCLC 928184292 ↗:
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      Mrs Partridge, upon this, immediately fell into a fury, and discharged the trencher on which she was eating, at the head of poor Jenny […]
  7. (electricity) To release (an accumulated charge).
  8. To relieve of an office or employment; to send away from service; to dismiss.
    Synonyms: fire, let go, terminate, Thesaurus:lay off
    • c. 1591–1592, William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act V, scene v]:
      Discharge the common sort / With pay and thanks.
    • 1641, John Milton, Of Reformation:
      Grindal […] was discharged the government of his see.
    1. (medicine) To release (an inpatient) from hospital.
    2. (military) To release (a member of the armed forces) from service.
  9. To release legally from confinement; to set at liberty.
    to discharge a prisoner
  10. To operate (any weapon that fires a projectile, such as a shotgun or sling).
    • The galleys also did oftentimes, out of their prows, discharge their great pieces against the city.
    • 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot Chapter IV
      I ran forward, discharging my pistol into the creature's body in an effort to force it to relinquish its prey; but I might as profitably have shot at the sun.
  11. To release (an auxiliary assumption) from the list of assumptions used in arguments, and return to the main argument.
  12. To unload a ship or another means of transport.
  13. To put forth, or remove, as a charge or burden; to take out, as that with which anything is loaded or filled.
    to discharge a cargo
  14. To give forth; to emit or send out.
    A pipe discharges water.
  15. To let fly; to give expression to; to utter.
    He discharged a horrible oath.
  16. (transitive, textiles) To bleach out or to remove or efface, as by a chemical process.
    to discharge the colour from a dyed fabric in order to form light figures on a dark background
  17. (obsolete, Scotland) To prohibit; to forbid.
Translations Translations Translations Translations
  • German: entlassen
  • Portuguese: dar alta
  • Russian: выпи́сывать
  • Spanish: dar de alta
Translations Translations Translations Translations Noun

discharge

  1. (symptom, uncountable) Pus or exudate (other than blood) from a wound or orifice, usually due to infection or pathology.
  2. The act of accomplishing (an obligation) or repaying a debt etc.; performance.
    • 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare, act 2 scene 1
      Whereof what's past is prologue, what to come / In yours and my discharge.
  3. The act of expelling or letting go.
  4. The act of firing a projectile, especially from a firearm.
    Synonyms: firing
  5. The process of unloading something.
  6. The process of flowing out.
  7. (electricity) The act of releasing an accumulated charge.
  8. (medicine) The act of releasing an inpatient from hospital.
  9. (military) The act of releasing a member of the armed forces from service.
  10. (hydrology) The volume of water transported by a river in a certain amount of time, usually in units of m3/s (cubic meters per second).
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