Definition of Amnesty

1. Noun. A period during which offenders are exempt from punishment.

Generic synonyms: Exemption, Freedom

2. Verb. Grant a pardon to (a group of people).
Category relationships: Jurisprudence, Law
Generic synonyms: Pardon

3. Noun. A warrant granting release from punishment for an offense.
Exact synonyms: Pardon
Generic synonyms: Warrant
Category relationships: Jurisprudence, Law
Derivative terms: Pardon

4. Noun. The formal act of liberating someone.
Exact synonyms: Free Pardon, Pardon
Generic synonyms: Clemency, Mercifulness, Mercy
Category relationships: Jurisprudence, Law
Derivative terms: Pardon

Definition of Amnesty

1. n. Forgetfulness; cessation of remembrance of wrong; oblivion.

2. v. t. To grant amnesty to.

Definition of Amnesty

1. Noun. Forgetfulness; cessation of remembrance of wrong; oblivion. ¹

2. Noun. An act of the sovereign power granting oblivion, or a general pardon, for a past offense, as to subjects concerned in an insurrection. ¹

3. Verb. To grant a pardon (to a group) ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Amnesty

1. to pardon [v -TIED, -TYING, -TIES] - See also: pardon

Lexicographical Neighbors of Amnesty

amnesia
amnesiac
amnesiacs
amnesias
amnesic
amnesic aphasia
amnesics
amnesiæ
amnestic
amnestic aphasia
amnestic psychosis
amnestic syndrome
amnestically
amnestied
amnesties
amnesty (current term)
amnestying
amnia
amnic
amnicolist
amnicolists
amnihook
amnihooks
amnio
amnio-
amniocardiac vesicle
amniocele
amniocenteses
amniochorial

Literary usage of Amnesty

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The Cambridge Modern History by John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton Acton, Adolphus William Ward, George Walter Prothero, Ernest Alfred Benians (1909)
"The enthusiasm caused by the amnesty in Rome, in the provinces, in Italy generally, ... But the amnesty of Pius IX was neither small nor insignificant; ..."

2. Cyclopaedia of Political Science, Political Economy, and of the Political by John Joseph Lalor (1883)
"This example of partial and restrictive amnesty was imitated at the second ... 12, 1816. this new amnesty did not include a certain number of prominent ..."

3. An Introduction to the Constitutional Law of the United States: Especially by John Norton Pomeroy (1868)
"At the present day such an act of grace is often called a general amnesty. Although the word is current in our literature, and has a quasi-legal ..."

4. Handbook of International Law by George Grafton Wilson (1910)
"amnesty. 171. Clauses are frequently included in treaties of peace by which immunity ... amnesty is a kind of act of oblivion. Even if such a clause is not ..."

5. Union--disunion--reunion: Three Decades of Federal Legislation. 1855 to 1885 by Samuel Sullivan Cox (1886)
"Benjamin F. Butler, then a member from Massachusetts, introduced his bill for a general grace, amnesty, and oblivion. It was copied from an old English ..."

6. Genocide in Iraq: the anfal campaign against the Kurds by George Black (1993)
"It declared "a general and comprehensive amnesty for all Iraqi Kurds...both ... Ali Hassan al-Majid was infuriated by the amnesty, he later told aides, ..."

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