liberation

Borrowed from Middle French libération, and from Latin liberatio, liberationem (“a freeing”), from liberare past participle liberatus (“set free”); see liberate.

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

liberation (countable and uncountable, plural liberations)

1. The act of liberating or the state of being liberated.

   The liberation of American slaves was accomplished by the Department of War, that of British slaves by the Exchequer.

   • 1995, Julius Evola, “The Two Paths in the Afterlife”, in Guido Stucco, transl., Revolt against the Modern World‎, Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions International, translation of Rivolta contro il mondo moderno, →ISBN, page 50:

     People saw in the elders, who were closer to death, the manifestation of the divine force that was thought to achieve its full liberation at death.

2. (euphemistic or ironic) Synonym of conquest or theft.

   The War of 1848 effected the liberation of the Southwest from Mexico by the grace of Gawd.

   As the activists congratulated themselves on the liberation of most of the farm's chickens, the first batch of roadkill was created on the nearby interstate.

3. (politics) The achievement of equal rights and status, particularly as seen as freedom from historic and structural oppression.

   women's liberation... black liberation... gay liberation...

• emancipation, independence

• enslavement, oppression

• liberate

• “liberation”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• liberation in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• "liberation" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 181.
• “liberation”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “liberation”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

• libationer