【Free】 , 【release】 , 【liberate】 , 【emancipate】 , 【manumit】 , 【deliver】 , 【discharge】 , 【enfranchise】 are comparable when meaning to set loose from whatever ties or binds or to make clear of whatever encumbers or holds back.
【Free】 is the ordinary general term interchangeable with many of the succeeding terms; it may be used not only in reference to persons that are in bondage or in a state of dependence or oppression or under restraint or constraint, but also in reference to things that are confined, entangled, or encumbered and may therefore be unfastened, unloosed, disentangled, or disengaged.
【Release】 carries a stronger implication of loosing or of setting loose from confinement, restraint, or obligation.
【Liberate】 , a very close synonym of the preceding words, differs from them chiefly in carrying a stronger suggestion of resulting liberty. The term may therefore connote, as do the others, emergence from some more or less disagreeable bondage or restraint or it may merely suggest a cutting of a tie, relationship, or connection without regard to the power of another thing or things to restrain or restrict, thereby approaching separate, disengage, or detach in meaning.
【Emancipate】 basically means to 【free】 one person from subjection to another (as a child from subjection to his parent or a slave from subjection to his master), but the term is more frequently found in an extended sense, implying a liberation of someone or something from what controls or dominates; it usually also suggests a freedom by which one's own judgment or conscience or intelligence decrees the course to be taken or the principles to be followed.
【Manumit】 differs from 【emancipate】 in its historical sense in always implying liberation from slavery or servitude; it is therefore sometimes preferred as the more definite term.
【Deliver】 is comparatively rare as a close synonym of 【free】 . But in all of its many extended senses the idea of freeing is the basic, though not the strongest, implication. It is specifically a synonym of rescue , (see RESCUE ) when it implies 【release】 from peril, danger, or other evil.
It comes close to transfer or convey when it implies a disburdening of oneself of something which belongs to another or is intended for him or to utter or pronounce when it implies a relieving oneself of something one must say or is charged by oneself or another with saying.
The term may denote the disburdening of a woman of offspring at the time of its birth.
【Discharge】 (see also DISMISS 1 ); ( PERFORM ) implies the 【release】 of someone or something that is held in confinement or under restraint or within the bounds of a thing; it may suggest liberation, but often it implies an ejection or an emission or a pouring forth through an outlet or vent or a payment or settlement (as of an obligation).
Often 【discharge】 differs from 【release】 in carrying a stronger connotation of force or violence.
【Enfranchise】 basically implies a freeing from subjection, but in its commonest sense it specifically implies the removal of political disabilities and admission to full political rights as a freeman or as a citizen.
