Also 6–7 -at. [f. L. exonerāt- ppl. stem of exonerā-re, f. ex- (see EX- pref.1) + oner-, onus burden. Cf. Fr. exonérer.]
1. trans. To take off a burden from; to relieve of (a burden, material or immaterial); to unload, lighten (a ship); also humorously, to ‘relieve’ (a person) of his money. Now rare.
1524. Hen. VIII., in Strype, Eccl. Mem., I. App. xiii. 30. Discharging or exonerating their galeis.
1566. Painter, Pal. Pleas., I. 46. [They] haue prayed to God to be exonerated of loue, aboue all other diseases.
1615. T. Adams, Spir. Navigator, 34. He strives to exonerate his shoulders.
a. 1634. Chapman, Bacchus, 110. Exonerate Our sinking vessel of his deified lode.
1637. Bastwick, Litany, III. 13. They would quickly exonerate their families of them.
1640. Bp. Reynolds, Passions, xxi. 218. It exonerateth the mind of all those dulling Indispositions which unfitted it for Action.
1785. Burke, Sp. Nabob Arcot’s Debts, Wks. IV. 308. The debt thus exonerated of so great a weight of its odium.
1798. Wellington, in Owen, Disp., 29. Success would certainly exonerate our finances.
1807–8. Syd. Smith, P. Plymley’s Lett., x. Be exonerated of his ready money and his constitution.
† 2. To discharge the contents of (the body, an organ), esp. by evacuation. To exonerate nature, oneself: to relieve the bowels. Obs.
1542. Boorde, Dyetary, viii. (1870), 248. And exonerate your selfe at all tymes that nature wold expell. Ibid., xxx. 293. To exonerat the blader and the bely whan nede shall requyre.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 65. They sit all the day long, vnlesse they rise to exonerate nature.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 149. [They] ouer-load their mouthes…, and by a sudden laughter exonerate their chaps.
1710. T. Fuller, Pharm. Extemp., 322. Cachectic Pills … exonerate the Habit of the Body.
1829. Health & Longevity, 269. The bowels … ought to be exonerated at least once in two days.
† b. intr. for refl. Obs.
1631. R. H., Arraignm. Whole Creature, xiii. § 1. 178. Overcharged … till they … exonerate as a Wolfe or Dog, too full gorged, with Carion.
1704. J. Pitts, Relig. & Mann. Mahometans, iv. 25. These Moors … accounting it a great piece of Rudeness to exonerate in the sight of another.
1762. B. Stillingfl., Econ. Nat., Misc. Tracts 123. Care is taken that these animals should exonerate upon stones, [etc.].
† 3. refl. Of a lake, river, sea, etc., also of a blood-vessel: To empty itself, its waters, or contents; to disembogue, discharge. Obs.
1598. Hakluyt, Voy., I. 113. Neither did this riuer exonerate itself into any sea.
1635. Jackson, Creed, VIII. xx. Wks. VIII. 43. We all meet in the main or ocean whereinto this psalm and others do exonerate themselves.
1659. Macallo, Can. Physick, 25. The great Veines … do exonerate themselves into the little.
1715. Halley, in Phil. Trans., XXIX. 298. That [gulf] of Paria, into which the Lake of Titicaca does in part exonerate it self.
† 4. trans. a. To discharge, pour off (a fluid product, a body of water). b. To cast off, get rid of (persons, population). Obs. rare.
a. 1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 429. It [the bile] is … exonerated into that which is called the Caua or hollow veine.
1635. N. Carpenter, Geog. Del., II. vi. 96. The streitnesse of the channell, wherein a great and large sea is to bee exonerated.
1672. Phil. Trans., VII. 5009. The Lympha does wholly exonerate itself into the sub-clavial and jugular veins.
b. 1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, I. viii. § 4. These borderers … might exonerate their swelling multitudes.
1657. Hawke, Killing is M., 23. Whereby such nefarious and facinerous persons may be exonerated.
5. To relieve from, † of (anything burdensome, a duty, obligation, payment, task, etc.).
1548. Hall, Chron., 227. That he might … exonerate them of the great charges, travayles & labors, that they now were in.
c. 1555. Harpsfield, Divorce Hen. VIII. (1878), 25. Would God Sir Thomas Moore … had exonerated and discharged me of this my pains & labour.
1692. Lond. Gaz., No. 2786/3. To exonerate and discharge them from all Arrears of Hearth-money.
1783. Burke, Rep. Affairs India, Wks. 1842, II. 62. Mr. Hastings … offered to exonerate the company from that ‘charge.’
1835. I. Taylor, Spir. Despot., ii. 75. A body of clergy exonerated of all solicitude.
1851. Ord. & Regul. R. Engineers, ii. 2. Commanding Royal Engineers will not exonerate any Officers … from the performance of such Duties.
6. To free from blame; to exculpate; also, to relieve from the blame or burden of; to relieve or set free from (blame, reproach).
1575. Churchyard, Chippes (1817), 40. That lord Oxford might be induced … to exonerate Churchyard.
1678. R. Barclay, Apol. Quakers, V. § 12. 136. Such a Season, at least, sufficiently exonerateth God of every Man’s Condemnation.
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., I. 334. To exonerate myself of a greater crime.
1825. Mad. D’Arblay, Diary, I. 561. To exonerate her from the banal reproach of yielding unresisting to her passions.
a. 1848. R. W. Hamilton, Rew. & Punishm., viii. (1853), 489. Do we seek to exonerate his justice or his benevolence, by the denial of his faithfulness?
1884. Pae, Eustace, 187. I won’t exonerate the Government.
