manumit

[ man-yuh-mit ]

verb (used with object)

, man·u·mit·ted, man·u·mit·ting.

1. to release from slavery or servitude.

manumit

/ ˌmænjʊˈmɪt /

verb

1. tr to free from slavery, servitude, etc; emancipate

Derived Forms

• ˌmanuˈmitter, noun

Other Words From

• manu·mitter noun
• unman·u·mitted adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of manumit¹

1375–1425; late Middle English < Latin manūmittere, earlier manū ēmittere to send away from (one's) hand, i.e., to set free. See manus, emit

Word History and Origins

Origin of manumit¹

C15: from Latin manūmittere to release, from manū from one's hand + ēmittere to send away

Example Sentences

“The evidence is pretty strong that Johns Hopkins was an abolitionist,” Crenson said, and the possibility exists that he owned enslaved people for the possibility of manumitting them.

From Washington Post

Tubman’s father was granted 10 acres of land when he was manumitted, or freed from slavery, around five years after his former owner Anthony Thompson’s death in 1836.

From New York Times

In 1917, a former director of the Hopkins hospital, in an article, told the story about Hopkins’s father, Samuel, manumitting his slaves, which he seems to have gotten from interviews with Hopkins family members.

From New York Times

As a new employee, I sat through an orientation that told of how Johns Hopkins had come from a long line of Quakers who had, out of conviction, manumitted their slaves.

From Washington Post

“I was manumitted into the world at large,” he wrote.

From Washington Post