Definition of "acquite"
acquite
verb
third-person singular simple present acquites, present participle acquiting, simple past and past participle acquited
Quotations
Therwyth al roſy hewed tho woxe ſhe / And gan to hym, and ſayd, ſo I trowe / Aquyte him wel for goddes loue (q[uo]d he) / My ſelfe to medes wol the lettre ſowe […](please add an English translation of this quotation)
c. 1380s, [Geoffrey Chaucer, William Caxton, editor], The Double Sorow of Troylus to Telle Kyng Pryamus Sone of Troye [...] [Troilus and Criseyde], [Westminster]: Explicit per Caxton, published 1482; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], book II, [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, folio clxxix, verso, column 1, line 1200
Although it pleaſed you this other night (occasion by me unhappily miniſtred) to intertaine time with an ordinarie profeſſion of love, yet (maſter Rinaldo) you doe both me and your ſelfe great injurie to continue your needleſſe labour with ſuch importunancie to me. […] Thus muche (being your firſte attempt) I thought it good to anſwere, leaſt you ſhould think with needleſſe niceneſſe I acquited your courteſies.
1576, George Whetstone, “The Castle of Delight: […]”, in The Rocke of Regard, […], London: […] [H. Middleton] for Robert Waley; republished in J[ohn] P[ayne] Collier, editor, The Rocke of Regard, […] (Illustrations of Early English Poetry; vol. 2, no. 2), London: Privately printed, page 48
Midst foes (as champion of the faith) he ment / That palme or cypress should his paines acquite; […]
1594, Torquato Tasso, translated by R[ichard] C[arew], Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Hierusalem: […], London: Imprinted by Iohn Windet for Christopher Hunt of Exceter; quoted in “Art. III. Godfrey of Bulloigne, or the Recouerie of Hierusalem. […]”, in [Henry Southern], editor, The Retrospective Review, volume III, part I, London: Charles and Henry Baldwin, […], 1821, page 45
[W]hen God ſaith of himſelfe, that he is one who acquiting will not acquite the wicked, his meaning is, that whatſoeuer may be ſuppoſed becauſe of his patience, yet he will not fully and finally diſcharge thoſe who goe on ſtill in their vngodly courſes, and preſume vpon his Mercy, without repentance.
1619, Samuel Hieron, “[The Back-parts of Iehovah.] The Fourth Sermon.”, in The Sermons of Master Samvel Hieron, […], London: Printed by Iohn Legatt, published 1620, page 188
But gently could his passion entertaine, / Though she Love's princesse, he a lowly swaine. / First of his bold intrusion she acquites him, / Then to her service (happy Boy!) admits him, / And, like another Love, with bow and quiver fits him.
1628, Phineas Fletcher (falsely attributed to Edmund Spenser), Brittain’s Ida. Written by that Renowned Poët, Edmond Spencer, London: Printed [by Nicholas Okes] for Thomas Walkley, […]; republished in Alexander B[alloch] Grosart, editor, The Poems of Phineas Fletcher, B.D., Rector of Hilgay, Norfolk: […] In Four Volumes (The Fuller Worthies’ Library), volume I, [s.l.]: Printed for private circulation, 1869, canto IV, stanza 8, page 72