discharge

verb

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)”

   “O most dear mistress, / The sun will set before I shall discharge / What I must strive to do.”

2. To free of a debt, claim, obligation, responsibility, accusation, etc.; to absolve; to acquit; to forgive; to clear.

   “But in deede, the ſecret cauſe that brought Ageſilaus to conſent vnto this practiſe, was the greatnes of his dette which he ought, of the which he hoped to be diſcharged by chaunging of the ſtate and common wealth.”

   “For if One Man's Faults could Discharge Another Man of his Duty,there would be no longer any Place left for the Common Offices of Society.”

   “How happy is his low degree, / How rich in humble poverty, is he, / Who leads a quiet country life; / Diſcharg'd of buſineſs, void of ſtrife, / And from the griping ſcrivener free?”

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

   “If he had / The present money to discharge the Jew.”

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

   “The order for Daly's attendance was discharged.”

5. To expel or let go.

   “Feeling in other cases discharges itself in indirect muscular actions.”

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

   “They do discharge their shot of courtesy.”

   “Mrs Partridge, upon this, immediately fell into a fury, and discharged the trencher on which she was eating, at the head of poor Jenny […]”

7. To release (an accumulated charge).

   “GWR plans to use it on the Greenford branch in west London, making use of a fast charger at West Ealing that will charge the batteries in just three and a half minutes. This fast charger is essentially a battery installed at the lineside which is trickle-charged from the electricity grid. It can then discharge quickly into the train's batteries through charging rails and then start recharging itself while the train is running in service.”

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

   “Discharge the common sort / With pay and thanks.”

   “Grindal […] was discharged the government of his see.”

9. To relieve of an office or employment; to send away from service; to dismiss.
10. To relieve of an office or employment; to send away from service; to dismiss.
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).

    “discharge his pieces”

    “I ran forward, discharging my pistol into the creature's body in an effort to force it to relinquish its prey; but I might as profitably have shot at the sun.”

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. (transitive)To bleach out or to remove or efface, as by a chemical process.

    “to discharge the colour from a dyed fabric in order to form light figures on a dark background”

19. (Scotland, obsolete)To prohibit; to forbid.

    “That Richard Stevenson, Robert Calcott, and Richard Tyldesley, be discharged from farther restraint, giving good security to appear at this Board whensoever summoned, and not depart this city until full satisfaction be given”

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)The act of expelling or letting go.

   “care transition after discharge”

2. (countable, uncountable)The act of expelling or letting go.

   “career transition after discharge”

3. (countable, uncountable)The material thus released.

   “Near-synonyms: effluent, effluence (sometimes synonymous)”

   “a mucopurulent vaginal discharge”

   “the cooling tower's discharge”

4. (countable, uncountable)The act of firing a projectile, especially from a firearm.

   “negligent discharge”

5. (countable, uncountable)The process of removing the load borne by something.
6. (countable, uncountable)The process of flowing out.
7. (uncountable)The process of flowing out.

   “Near-synonyms: effluent, effluence (sometimes synonymous)”

8. (countable, uncountable)The act of releasing an accumulated charge.
9. (countable, uncountable)The volume of water transported by a river in a certain amount of time, usually in units of m³/s (cubic meters per second).
10. (countable, uncountable)The act of accomplishing (an obligation) or repaying a debt etc.; performance.

    “Whereof what's past is prologue, what to come / In yours and my discharge.”

    “She [the Queen] was assisted in the discharge of her solemn functions by fourteen sacred women, one for each of the altars of Dionysus.”

11. (countable, uncountable)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.

    “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.”