Lexic.us

Definition of Assoil

1. Verb. Pronounce not guilty of criminal charges. "They want to assoil the prisoners "; "The suspect was cleared of the murder charges"

Definition of Assoil

1. v. t. To set free; to release.

2. v. t. To soil; to stain.

Definition of Assoil

1. Verb. (transitive archaic) To absolve, acquit; to release from blame or sin. ¹

2. Verb. (archaic) To set free, release. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Assoil

1. to pardon [v -ED, -ING, -S] - See also: pardon

Literary usage of Assoil

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

1. England in the Age of Wycliffe by George Macaulay Trevelyan (1920)
"A priest should not say “I assoil,” when he wot not if God assoil.'3 Wycliffe fully realised how the confessional subjected men to the priesthood, ..."

2. An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language by Walter William Skeat (1893)
"See Absolve, of which assoil is merely a doublet. ^fI suspect that the form properly belongs to the près subj. or imperative, from the use of the phrase ..."

3. Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse by Alfred William Pollard (1903)
"And I said to him,' Sir, it is all one to assoil men of their sins, and to forgive men their sins: wherefore since it pertaineth only to GOD to forgive sin, ..."

4. An English Garner: Ingatherings from Our History & Literature by Edward Arber (1895)
"And therefore those priests that take upon them to assoil men of their sins, blaspheme GOD ; since that it pertaineth only to the LORD to assoil men of all ..."

5. A Glossary of Tudor and Stuart Words: Especially from the Dramatists by Walter William Skeat, Anthony Lawson Mayhew (1914)
"Span. Curate, iii. 1. 15. assoil, to set free, to dispel. Spenser, FQ iii. 1. 58; iv. 5. 30. A peculiar use of assoil, to absolve. ..."

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