Discharge
(Dis*charge"), v. i. To throw off or deliver a load, charge, or burden; to unload; to emit or give
vent to fluid or other contents; as, the water pipe discharges freely.
The cloud, if it were oily or fatty, would not discharge.
Bacon. Discharge
(Dis*charge"), n. [Cf. F. décharge. See Discharge, v. t.]
1. The act of discharging; the act of relieving of a charge or load; removal of a load or burden; unloading; as,
the discharge of a ship; discharge of a cargo.
2. Firing off; explosive removal of a charge; explosion; letting off; as, a discharge of arrows, of artillery.
3. Act of relieving of something which oppresses or weighs upon one, as an obligation, liability, debt,
accusation, etc.; acquittance; as, the discharge of a debtor.
4. Act of removing, or getting rid of, an obligation, liability, etc.; fulfillment, as by the payment of a debt,
or the performance of a trust or duty.
Indefatigable in the discharge of business.
Motley.
Nothing can absolve us from the discharge of those duties.
L'Estrange. 5. Release or dismissal from an office, employment, etc.; dismission; as, the discharge of a workman by
his employer.
6. Legal release from confinement; liberation; as, the discharge of a prisoner.
7. The state of being discharged or relieved of a debt, obligation, office, and the like; acquittal.
Too secure of our discharge
From penalty.
Milton. 8. That which discharges or releases from an obligation, liability, penalty, etc., as a price of ransom, a
legal document.
Death, who sets all free,
Hath paid his ransom now and full discharge.
Milton. 9. A flowing or issuing out; emission; vent; evacuation; also, that which is discharged or emitted; as, a rapid
discharge of water from the pipe.
The hemorrhage being stopped, the next occurrence is a thin serous discharge.
S. Sharp.
Charge and discharge. (Equity Practice) See under Charge, n. — Paralytic discharge (Physiol.),
the increased secretion from a gland resulting from the cutting of all of its nerves.
