Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The act of setting free; release from slavery or from custody; enlargement.
- noun The admission of a person or persons to the freedom of a state or corporation; investiture with the privileges of free citizens; the incorporating of a person into any society or body politic; now, specifically, bestowment of the electoral franchise or the right of voting.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Releasing from slavery or custody.
- noun Admission to the freedom of a corporation or body politic; investiture with the privileges of free citizens.
- noun (Eng. Law) the conversion of a copyhold estate into a freehold.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The act of
enfranchising - noun The
release fromslavery - noun The
investiture with any of severalmunicipal privileges
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a statutory right or privilege granted to a person or group by a government (especially the rights of citizenship and the right to vote)
- noun the act of certifying or bestowing a franchise on
- noun freedom from political subjugation or servitude
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Thus redistribution without enfranchisement is not a credible alternative and does little to alleviate the threat of revolution.
Shimer on Acemoglu, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009
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It is scarcely too much to say that to her mind this question was second in importance to none, and though the word enfranchisement, as applied to woman, had not yet been uttered, the whole theory of it was in Sarah's heart, and she eagerly awaited the proper time and place to develop it.
The Grimke Sisters Birney, Catherine H. 1885
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Christians; for such enfranchisement is doubtless a benefit so far as it may be compatible with truth and piety.
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 1206
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As I see it, real enfranchisement is an opportunity to participate in the selection of the nation’s political leaders in a way that has at least some chance of affecting the result, not merely having your votes “counted.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Could National Juries Alleviate the Problem of Political Ignorance? 2010
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Their exactions at last became unendurable, and a long struggle broke out between them and the burghers, which resulted in what is known as the enfranchisement of the towns.
General History for Colleges and High Schools Philip Van Ness Myers
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A common and altogether natural error into which the negroes soon fell after their enfranchisement was the belief that the Republican party of the North was securely lodged in governmental control, and that it was unreservedly committed to the maintenance of their political rights against their late
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Moreover, as woman is the most important factor in the marriage relation, her enfranchisement is the primal step in deciding the basis of family life.
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The melancholy absurdity of giving these people votes, at any rate at present, would glare at one out of every roll of their eyes, chuckle in their mouths, and bump in their heads, if one did not see (as one cannot help seeing in the country) that their enfranchisement is a mere party trick to get votes.
The Life of Charles Dickens, Vol. I-III, Complete John Forster 1844
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The DNC has to determine how to approportion the delegates for the national convention from 2 states that violated the primary process independent of voters 'enfranchisement'.
Obama Campaign Calls For 50-50 Split Of Michigan Delegates 2009
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Such chivalry, it would seem, is an insult to the power and intelligence of the women of Utah, who celebrated their "enfranchisement" by a convention to favor the free coinage of silver, 16 to 1, and whose behavior on that occasion was, to say the least, boyish.
Woman and the Republic — a Survey of the Woman-Suffrage Movement in the United States and a Discussion of the Claims and Arguments of Its Foremost Advocates Helen Kendrick Johnson 1880
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