The Collaborative International Dictionary
Discharge \Dis*charge"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Discharged; p. pr. & vb. n. Discharging.] [OE. deschargen, dischargen, OF. deschargier, F. d['e]charger; pref. des- (L. dis) + chargier, F. charger. See Charge.]
To relieve of a charge, load, or burden; to empty of a load or cargo; to unburden; to unload; as, to discharge a vessel.
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To free of the missile with which anything is charged or loaded; to let go the charge of; as, to discharge a bow, catapult, etc.; especially, said of firearms, -- to fire off; to shoot off; also, to relieve from a state of tension, as a Leyden jar.
The galleys also did oftentimes, out of their prows, discharge their great pieces against the city.
--Knolles.Feeling in other cases discharges itself in indirect muscular actions.
--H. Spencer. -
To of something weighing upon or impeding over one, as a debt, claim, obligation, responsibility, accusation, etc.; to absolve; to acquit; to clear.
Discharged of business, void of strife.
--Dryden.In one man's fault discharge another man of his duty.
--L'Estrange. -
To relieve of an office or employment; to send away from service; to dismiss.
Discharge the common sort With pay and thanks.
--Shak.Grindal . . . was discharged the government of his see.
--Milton. To release legally from confinement; to set at liberty; as, to discharge a prisoner.
To put forth, or remove, as a charge or burden; to take out, as that with which anything is loaded or filled; as, to discharge a cargo.
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To let fly, as a missile; to shoot.
They do discharge their shot of courtesy.
--Shak. -
To set aside; to annul; to dismiss.
We say such an order was ``discharged on appeal.''
--Mozley & W.The order for Daly's attendance was discharged.
--Macaulay. -
To throw off the obligation of, as a duty or debt; to relieve one's self of, by fulfilling conditions, performing duty, trust, and the like; hence, to perform or execute, as an office, or part.
Had I a hundred tongues, a wit so large As could their hundred offices discharge.
--Dryden. -
To send away (a creditor) satisfied by payment; to pay one's debt or obligation to. [Obs.]
If he had The present money to discharge the Jew.
--Shak. To give forth; to emit or send out; as, a pipe discharges water; to let fly; to give expression to; to utter; as, to discharge a horrible oath.
To prohibit; to forbid. [Scot. Obs.]
--Sir W. Scott.-
(Textile Dyeing & Printing) To bleach out or to remove or efface, as by a chemical process; as, to discharge the color from a dyed fabric in order to form light figures on a dark ground.
Discharging arch (Arch.), an arch over a door, window, or other opening, to distribute the pressure of the wall above. See Illust. of Lintel.
Discharging piece, Discharging strut (Arch.), a piece set to carry thrust or weight to a solid point of support.
Discharging rod (Elec.), a bent wire, with knobs at both ends, and insulated by a glass handle. It is employed for discharging a Leyden jar or an electrical battery. See Discharger.
Syn: See Deliver.
Wiktionary
n. The act or process by which something is discharged. vb. (present participle of discharge English)
Wikipedia
Usage examples of "discharging".
These were old markings though, and my attention returned to the fresh wound: I thought I noticed something embedded there, a slight, blackish protrusion under the slick coat of discharging blood.
Carson Newburgh had kept him on for his clerical skills, and somehow he had become part of the inner circle, gradually assuming greater and greater responsibilities and discharging them without fault.
But the nitrocellulose caseless cartridges were all used up in discharging the 4.
It was a textbook case of chronic osteomyelitis, with a discharging sinus and probably a large chunk of dead bone inside, trapped within a new layer of living bone that was desperately trying to evict the dead matter.
Nor have I any doubt that you, whom I have heard to be the tenderest of mothers, will suffer any immoderate indulgence of grief to prevent you from discharging your duty to those poor infants, who now alone stand in need of your tenderness.
Finding Kator ready to defend himself, the insane Aton had then leaped into the air lock, and committed suicide by discharging himself into space.
The well-drilled crews handled the galleys with aplomb, scooting around the huge, high-sided, cumbersome galleons like so many waterbugs, discharging their breechloaders again and again to fearsome effect into their unmissable targets, while the return fire howled and hummed uselessly high over their heads.
Cannons roared as Firebirds streaked across the sky, flintlocks discharging continuously.
Tongamorlena bellowed, discharging his blaster at the racing Hummers darting about in the jungle.
After dining, and discharging all the ceremonies and oracles which were necessary to calm the soul of my poor victim, I went to a banker and got a bill of a hundred louis on Lyons, to the order of M.
The moment their flesh met, the nageric static of orhuen postreaction snapped like static electricity discharging.
Olympus, discharging its cargo of scrap metal, and lifting on repulsers in time for the next shuttle to take its place.
He has to ask leave of the moon, has he, before discharging so sweet a duty?
Partussian soldiery in operational kit moved about in businesslike fashion, occasionally discharging annihilators at an imaginary enemy.
The river having now no water but what the springs supply, showed us only a swift current, clear and shallow, fretting over the asperities of the rocky bottom, and we were left to exercise our thoughts, by endeavouring to conceive the effect of a thousand streams poured from the mountains into one channel, struggling for expansion in a narrow passage, exasperated by rocks rising in their way, and at last discharging all their violence of waters by a sudden fall through the horrid chasm.