Ac*quit" (&?;), p. p. Acquitted; set free; rid of. [Archaic] Shak.

Ac*quit", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Acquitted; p. pr. & vb. n. Acquitting.] [OE. aquiten, OF. aquiter, F. acquitter; &?; (L. ad) + OF. quiter, F. quitter, to quit. See Quit, and cf. Acquiet.] 1. To discharge, as a claim or debt; to clear off; to pay off; to requite.

A responsibility that can never be absolutely acquitted.
I. Taylor.

2. To pay for; to atone for. [Obs.] Shak.

3. To set free, release or discharge from an obligation, duty, liability, burden, or from an accusation or charge; -- now followed by of before the charge, formerly by from; as, the jury acquitted the prisoner; we acquit a man of evil intentions.

4. Reflexively: (a) To clear one's self. Shak. (b) To bear or conduct one's self; to perform one's part; as, the soldier acquitted himself well in battle; the orator acquitted himself very poorly.

Syn. -- To absolve; clear; exonerate; exonerate; exculpate; release; discharge. See Absolve.

• (followed by "of", ): To set free, release or discharge from an obligation, duty, liability, burden, or from an accusation or charge; - as, the jury acquitted the prisoner of the charge; to find not guilty.
       
• 1775: Richard Sheridan, The duenna - His poverty, can you acquit him of that?
       
• 1837: Thomas Babington Macaulay, "Lord Bacon" in The Edinburgh Review, July 1837 - If he was convicted, it was because it was impossible to acquit him without offering the grossest outrage to justice and common sense.
  
• (Obsolete, Rare): To pay for; to atone for
       
• (RQ:Shakespeare Lucrece), line 1071 - Till life to death acquit my forced offence.
  
• To discharge, as a claim or debt; to clear off; to pay off; to requite, to fulfill.
       
• (RQ:Chaucer Troilus II), 1200 - `Aquyte him wel, for goddes love,' quod he;
       
• 1640: Thomas Carew, Tasso - Midst foes (as champion of the faith) he ment / That palme or cypress should his painees acquite.
       
• 1836: Edward Everett, Orations I-382 - I admit it to be not so much the duty as the privilege of an American citizen to acquit this obligation to the memory of his fathers with discretion and generosity.
       
• 1844: Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Experience" in Essays: second series - We see young men who owe us a new world, so readily and lavishly they promise, but they never acquit the debt; they die young and dodge the account: or if they live, they lose themselves in the crowd.
  
• (Reflexively): To clear one's self
       
• (RQ:Shakespeare Henry 6-2), III-ii - Pray God he may acquit him of suspicion!
  
• (Reflexively)): To bear or conduct one's self; to perform one's part; as, the soldier acquitted himself well in battle; the orator acquitted himself very poorly.
       
• 1766: Oliver Goldsmith, The vicar of Wakefield, xiv - Though this was one of the first mercantile transactions of my life, yet I had no doubt about acquitting myself with reputation.
  
• (Obsolete): to release, set free, rescue
       
• (RQ:Spenser 1590), I-vii-52 - Till I have acquit your captive Knight
  
• (Archaic): Past participle of acquit, set free, rid of
       
• (RQ:Shakespeare Wives), I-iii - I am glad I am so acquit of this tinder box.