exonerate

From Middle English exoneraten (attested in past participle exonerated), from Latin exonerāt-, the participle stem of exonerāre, from exonerō (“to discharge, unload; to exonerate”), from ex- (prefix denoting privation) + onerō (“to burden, lade; to load”) (from onus (“burden, load”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃énh₂os (“burden, load”), from *h₃enh₂- (“to charge, onerate”)). The English word is cognate with French exonérer.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪɡˈzɒnəɹeɪt/, /ɛɡ-/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪɡˈzɑnəˌɹeɪt/, /ɛɡ-/

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• Hyphenation: ex‧o‧ner‧ate

exonerate (third-person singular simple present exonerates, present participle exonerating, simple past and past participle exonerated)

1. (transitive, archaic) To relieve (someone or something) of a load; to unburden (a load).
2. (obsolete, reflexive) Of a body of water: to discharge or empty (itself).
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section ii, member 3, page 231:

     I would examine the Caſpian Sea, and ſee where and how it exonerates it ſelfe, after it hath taken in Volga, Iaxares, Oxus, and thoſe great rivers; at the mouth of Oby, or where?

3. (transitive) To free (someone) from an obligation, responsibility or task.
4. (transitive) To free (someone) from accusation or blame.

   Synonyms: acquit, exculpate; see also Thesaurus:acquit

• exonerated (adjective)
• exoneration
• exonerative
• exonerator

exonerate

1. (archaic) Freed from an obligation; freed from accusation or blame; acquitted, exonerated.

exonerāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of exonerō

exonerate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of exonerar combined with te