<p><strong>Verb</strong></p><ul><li>(used with object) to relieve of a charge or load; unload: to discharge a ship.</li><li>Synonyms: disburden, unburden.</li><li>to remove or send forth: They discharged the cargo at New York.</li><li>to fire or shoot (a firearm or missile): to discharge a gun.</li><li>to pour forth; emit: to discharge oil; to discharge a stream of invective.</li><li>Synonyms: exude, eject, expel.</li><li>to relieve oneself of (an obligation, burden, etc.).</li><li>to relieve of obligation, responsibility, etc.</li><li>to fulfill, perform, or execute (a duty, function, etc.).</li><li>to relieve or deprive of office, employment, etc.; dismiss from service.</li><li>Synonyms: remove, fire, cashier.</li><li>to release, send away, or allow to go (often followed by from): The children were discharged early from school. They discharged him from prison.</li><li>Synonyms: free, dismiss.</li><li>to pay (a debt).</li><li>Synonyms: liquidate, settle.</li><li>Law: to release (a defendant, especially one under confinement).</li><li>to release (a person declared bankrupt) from former debts.</li><li>to cancel (a contract, debt, or other obligation).</li><li>to release (bail) back to the one who posted it.</li><li>(in a legislative body) to order (a committee) to cease further consideration of a bill so that it can be voted on.</li><li>Electricity: to rid (a battery, capacitor, etc.) of a charge of electricity.</li><li>Dyeing: to free from a dye, as by chemical bleaching.</li></ul><p><strong>Noun</strong></p><ul><li>the act of discharging a ship, load, etc.</li><li>the act of firing a weapon, as an arrow by drawing and releasing the string of the bow, or a gun by exploding the charge of powder.</li><li>Synonyms: detonation.</li><li>a sending or coming forth, as of water from a pipe; ejection; emission.</li><li>the rate or amount of such issue.</li><li>something sent forth or emitted.</li><li>a relieving, ridding, or getting rid of something of the nature of a charge.</li><li>Law: an acquittal or exoneration.</li><li>an annulment, as of a court order.</li><li>the freeing of one held under legal process.</li><li>a relieving or being relieved of obligation or liability; fulfillment of an obligation.</li><li>Synonyms: performance, execution.</li><li>the payment of a debt.</li><li>a release or dismissal, as from prison, an office, or employment.</li><li>a certificate of such a release or a certificate of release from obligation or liability.</li><li>the act or process of ordering a legislative committee to cease further consideration of a bill so that it can be voted on.</li><li>Military: the separation of a person from military service.</li><li>a certificate of such separation.</li><li>Electricity: the removal or transference of an electric charge, as by the conversion of chemical energy to electrical energy.</li><li>the equalization of a difference of potential, as between two terminals.</li></ul>