EXCULPATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does exculpate mean? 

• EXCULPATE (verb)
  The verb EXCULPATE has 1 sense:

1. pronounce not guilty of criminal charges

  Familiarity information: EXCULPATE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EXCULPATE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they exculpate    ... he / she / it exculpates   
Past simple: exculpated   
Past participle: exculpated   
-ing form: exculpating   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Pronounce not guilty of criminal charges

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

acquit; assoil; clear; discharge; exculpate; exonerate

Context example:

The suspect was cleared of the murder charges

Hypernyms (to "exculpate" is one way to...):

judge; label; pronounce (pronounce judgment on)

"Exculpate" entails doing...:

evaluate; judge; pass judgment (form a critical opinion of)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "exculpate"):

vindicate (clear of accusation, blame, suspicion, or doubt with supporting proof)

whitewash (exonerate by means of a perfunctory investigation or through biased presentation of data)

purge (clear of a charge)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s somebody of something

Sentence example:

They want to exculpate the prisoners

Derivation:

exculpation (the act of freeing from guilt or blame)

exculpatory (clearing of guilt or blame)

 Context examples 

A thousand times rather would I have confessed myself guilty of the crime ascribed to Justine, but I was absent when it was committed, and such a declaration would have been considered as the ravings of a madman and would not have exculpated her who suffered through me.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)