Dis·charge, n.
 1. The act of discharging; the act of relieving of a charge or load; removal of a load or burden; unloading; as, the discharge of a ship; discharge of a cargo.
 2. Firing off; explosive removal of a charge; explosion; letting off; as, a discharge of arrows, of artillery.
 3. Act of relieving of something which oppresses or weighs upon one, as an obligation, liability, debt, accusation, etc.; acquittance; as, the discharge of a debtor.
 4. Act of removing, or getting rid of, an obligation, liability, etc.; fulfillment, as by the payment of a debt, or the performance of a trust or duty.
    Indefatigable in the discharge of business.   --Motley.
    Nothing can absolve us from the discharge of those duties.   --L'Estrange.
 5. Release or dismissal from an office, employment, etc.; dismission; as, the discharge of a workman by his employer.
 6. Legal release from confinement; liberation; as, the discharge of a prisoner.
 7. The state of being discharged or relieved of a debt, obligation, office, and the like; acquittal.
 Too secure of our discharge
 From penalty.   --Milton.
 8. That which discharges or releases from an obligation, liability, penalty, etc., as a price of ransom, a legal document.
 Death, who sets all free,
 Hath paid his ransom now and full discharge.   --Milton.
 9. A flowing or issuing out; emission; vent; evacuation; also, that which is discharged or emitted; as, a rapid discharge of water from the pipe.
    The hemorrhage being stopped, the next occurrence is a thin serous discharge.   --S. Sharp.
 10.  Elec. The equalization of a difference of electric potential between two points. The character of the discharge is mostly determined by the nature of the medium through which it takes place, the amount of the difference of potential, and the form of the terminal conductors on which the difference exists. The discharge may be alternating, continuous, brush, connective, disruptive, glow, oscillatory, stratified, etc.
 Charge and discharge. Equity Practice See under Charge, n.
 Paralytic discharge Physiol., the increased secretion from a gland resulting from the cutting of all of its nerves.

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