v. t. - To relieve of a charge, load, or burden; to empty of a load or cargo; to unburden; to unload; as, to discharge a vessel.
v. t. - To free of the missile with which anything is charged or loaded; to let go the charge of; as, to discharge a bow, catapult, etc.; especially, said of firearms, -- to fire off; to shoot off; also, to relieve from a state of tension, as a Leyden jar.
v. t. - To of something weighing upon or impeding over one, as a debt, claim, obligation, responsibility, accusation, etc.; to absolve; to acquit; to clear.
v. t. - To relieve of an office or employment; to send away from service; to dismiss.
v. t. - To release legally from confinement; to set at liberty; as, to discharge a prisoner.
v. t. - To put forth, or remove, as a charge or burden; to take out, as that with which anything is loaded or filled; as, to discharge a cargo.
v. t. - To let fly, as a missile; to shoot.
v. t. - To set aside; to annul; to dismiss.
v. t. - To throw off the obligation of, as a duty or debt; to relieve one's self of, by fulfilling conditions, performing duty, trust, and the like; hence, to perform or execute, as an office, or part.
v. t. - To send away (a creditor) satisfied by payment; to pay one's debt or obligation to.
v. t. - To give forth; to emit or send out; as, a pipe discharges water; to let fly; to give expression to; to utter; as, to discharge a horrible oath.
v. t. - To prohibit; to forbid.
v. i. - To throw off or deliver a load, charge, or burden; to unload; to emit or give vent to fluid or other contents; as, the water pipe discharges freely.
v. t. - The act of discharging; the act of relieving of a charge or load; removal of a load or burden; unloading; as, the discharge of a ship; discharge of a cargo.
v. t. - Firing off; explosive removal of a charge; explosion; letting off; as, a discharge of arrows, of artillery.
v. t. - Act of relieving of something which oppresses or weighs upon one, as an obligation, liability, debt, accusation, etc.; acquittance; as, the discharge of a debtor.
v. t. - Act of removing, or getting rid of, an obligation, liability, etc.; fulfillment, as by the payment of a debt, or the performance of a trust or duty.
v. t. - Release or dismissal from an office, employment, etc.; dismission; as, the discharge of a workman by his employer.
v. t. - Legal release from confinement; liberation; as, the discharge of a prisoner.
v. t. - The state of being discharged or relieved of a debt, obligation, office, and the like; acquittal.
v. t. - That which discharges or releases from an obligation, liability, penalty, etc., as a price of ransom, a legal document.
v. t. - A flowing or issuing out; emission; vent; evacuation; also, that which is discharged or emitted; as, a rapid discharge of water from the pipe.
v. t. - To bleach out or to remove or efface, as by a chemical process; as, to discharge the color from a dyed fabric in order to form light figures on a dark ground.
n. - The equalization of a difference of electric potential between two points. The character of the discharge is mostly determined by the nature of the medium through which it takes place, the amount of the difference of potential, and the form of the terminal conductors on which the difference exists. The discharge may be alternating, continuous, brush, connective, disruptive, glow, oscillatory, stratified, etc.