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Definition 2024


unguilt

unguilt

English

Verb

unguilt (third-person singular simple present unguilts, present participle unguilting, simple past and past participle unguilted)

  1. (transitive) To remove the sin or guilt from; pardon; excuse.
    • 1986, Edward Haymes, Stephanie Cain Van D'Elden, Midwest Modern Language Association, The Dark figure in medieval German and Germanic literature:
      [...] admits his guilt and then finds relatives who want to "unguilt" him, [...]
    • 2006, Libby Sternberg, Finding the Forger:
      But I felt unguilted as soon as I did it. It made the whole incident feel normal, run-of-the-mill.
    • 2009, David Janssen, Edward Whitelock, Apocalypse Jukebox: The End of the World in American Popular Music - Page 72:
      No sin goes unpunished here, no joy unguilted.
Derived terms

Noun

unguilt (uncountable)

  1. Guiltlessness; innocence.
    • 1853, Francis Lieber, On civil liberty and self-government - Page 21:
      The guilt, the crime strikes first, and from it are abstracted the negations unguilt, innocence.
    • 1976, Rochelle Heller Stone, Bolesław Leśmian: The Poet and His Poetry:
      ("I love you for the unguilt of your madness . . .")
    • 2015, Micah Blacklight, Chapter Twenty-One: Songhai:
      When he looks at her she wears a secretive smile, the knowledge of their act between them like a thauma'd thing, laced with the unguilt of defiant exploration.

Etymology 2

From un- + guilt (gilt).

Adjective

unguilt (comparative more unguilt, superlative most unguilt)

  1. Not gilt or gilded.
    • 1696, 1903, The Connoisseur: Volume 5 - Page 204:
      Two silver monteths, two large fflaggons, two large tankards, two silver salvers , a voyder and a knyfe, two silver salts, two guilt bolls of the like size, one other boll, three silver bolls, in all 24 pieces guilt and unguilt.