English Dictionary

Definition of “discharge

discharge

Definitions

verb

  1. (tr) to release or allow to go  ⇒ the hospital discharged the patient 
  2. (tr) to dismiss from or relieve of duty, office, employment, etc
  3. to fire or be fired, as a gun
  4. to pour forth or cause to pour forth  ⇒ the boil discharges pus 
  5. (tr) to remove (the cargo) from (a boat, etc); unload
  6. (tr) to perform (the duties of) or meet (the demands of an office, obligation, etc)  ⇒ he discharged his responsibilities as mayor 
  7. (tr) to relieve oneself of (a responsibility, debt, etc)
  8. (intr) physics 
    1. to lose or remove electric charge
    2. to form an arc, spark, or corona in a gas
    3. to take or supply electrical current from a cell or battery
  9. (tr) law to release (a prisoner from custody, etc)
  10. (tr) to remove dye from (a fabric), as by bleaching
  11. (intr) (of a dye or colour) to blur or run
  12. (tr) architecture 
    1. to spread (weight) evenly over a supporting member
    2. to relieve a member of (excess weight) by distribution of pressure

noun

  1. a person or thing that is discharged
    1. dismissal or release from an office, job, institution, etc
    2. the document certifying such release
  2. the fulfilment of an obligation or release from a responsibility or liability  ⇒ honourable discharge 
  3. the act of removing a load, as of cargo
  4. a pouring forth of a fluid; emission
    1. the act of firing a projectile
    2. the volley, bullet, missile, etc, fired
  5. law 
    1. a release, as of a person held under legal restraint
    2. an annulment, as of a court order
  6. physics 
    1. the act or process of removing or losing charge or of equalizing a potential difference
    2. a transient or continuous conduction of electricity through a gas by the formation and movement of electrons and ions in an applied electric field
    1. the volume of fluid flowing along a pipe or a channel in unit time
    2. the output rate of a plant or piece of machinery, such as a pump

Alternative Forms

disˈchargeable adjective disˈcharger noun

Usage examples

  • Then at the end of the fifth week a date was set for his discharge , to be the following Friday.
    various & introduction by Deirdre Chapman, A Roomful of Birds - Scottish short stories 1990 (1990)
  • McSorley was charged and convicted of assault with a weapon and given an 18-month conditional discharge.
    CBC (2004)
  • The decision to agree a settlement yesterday led to the discharge of a scheduled two-day civil trial.
    Glasgow Herald (2001)
  • Breast symptoms: there were several reports of swollen breasts with discharge or even copious lactation.
    Trickett, Shirley, Coming Off Tranquillizers and Sleeping Pills (1991)

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