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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

discharge.

To accomplish or complete, as an obligation.

9 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/dɪsˈtʃɑːdʒ/Received-Pronunciation/dɪsˈtʃɑɹdʒ/US
  1. To accomplish or complete, as an obligation.

    Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President. (1965, Amendment XXV)
  2. To free of a debt, claim, obligation, responsibility, accusation, etc.; to absolve; to acquit; to forgive; to clear.

  3. To send away (a creditor) satisfied by payment; to pay one's debt or obligation to.

  4. To set aside; to annul; to dismiss.

  5. To expel or let go.

  6. To let fly, as a missile; to shoot.

  7. To release (an accumulated charge).

  8. To relieve of an office or employment; to send away from service; to dismiss.

  9. To relieve of an office or employment; to send away from service; to dismiss. To release (an inpatient) from hospital.

  10. To relieve of an office or employment; to send away from service; to dismiss. To release (a member of the armed forces) from service.

  11. To release legally from confinement; to set at liberty.

    to discharge a prisoner
  12. To operate (any weapon that fires a projectile, such as a shotgun or sling).

  13. To release (an auxiliary assumption) from the list of assumptions used in arguments, and return to the main argument.

  14. To unload a ship or another means of transport.

  15. 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
  16. To give forth; to emit or send out.

    A pipe discharges water.
  17. To let fly; to give expression to; to utter.

    He discharged a horrible oath.
  18. To bleach out or to remove or efface, as by a chemical process.

    transitive
    to discharge the colour from a dyed fabric in order to form light figures on a dark background
  19. To prohibit; to forbid.

    Scotland · obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English dischargen, from Old French deschargier (“to unload”), from Late Latin discarricāre (“unload”). By surface analysis, dis- + charge.

noun/dɪsˈtʃɑːdʒ/Received-Pronunciation/dɪsˈtʃɑɹdʒ/US/ˈdɪstʃɑːdʒ/Received-Pronunciation/ˈdɪstʃɑɹdʒ/US
  1. The act of expelling or letting go. The act of releasing an inpatient from hospital.

    countable · uncountable
    care transition after discharge
  2. The act of expelling or letting go. The act of releasing a member of the armed forces from service.

    countable · uncountable
    career transition after discharge
  3. The material thus released.

    countable · uncountable
    a mucopurulent vaginal discharge
    the cooling tower's discharge
  4. The act of firing a projectile, especially from a firearm.

    countable · uncountable
    negligent discharge
  5. The process of removing the load borne by something.

    countable · uncountable
  6. The process of flowing out.

    countable · uncountable
  7. The process of flowing out. Pus or exudate or mucus (but in modern usage not exclusively blood) from a wound or orifice, usually due to pathological or hormonal changes.

    uncountable
  8. The act of releasing an accumulated charge.

    countable · uncountable
  9. The volume of water transported by a river in a certain amount of time, usually in units of m³/s (cubic meters per second).

    countable · uncountable
  10. The act of accomplishing (an obligation) or repaying a debt etc.; performance.

    countable · uncountable
  11. Release from liability, as granted to someone having served in a position of trust, such as to the officers and governors of a corporate body.

    countable · uncountable
    After having granted discharge from liability, the general meeting of shareholders may not demand for the company compensation for matters which it had knowledge of when granting discharge.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English dischargen, from Old French deschargier (“to unload”), from Late Latin discarricāre (“unload”). By surface analysis, dis- + charge.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.