What's the difference between absolve and forgive?

Absolve


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To set free, or release, as from some obligation, debt, or responsibility, or from the consequences of guilt or such ties as it would be sin or guilt to violate; to pronounce free; as, to absolve a subject from his allegiance; to absolve an offender, which amounts to an acquittal and remission of his punishment.
  • (v. t.) To free from a penalty; to pardon; to remit (a sin); -- said of the sin or guilt.
  • (v. t.) To finish; to accomplish.
  • (v. t.) To resolve or explain.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Religious efforts to address the issue have also been complicit in absolving men of their crimes, objectifying women and doing more harm than good with campaigns that blame women for the phenomenon.
  • (2) Their actions suggested that while Brown was busy unilaterally absolving the inequities of our colonial past, the Iraqis are still dealing with the iniquities of our colonial present.
  • (3) The development of body-weight from three anual-sets of children, who are born in the town of Görlitz, from birth to time of school-absolvation is presented.
  • (4) The company appears to blame multiple agencies and absolve itself of any responsibility for the violence in February that left one asylum seeker dead and dozens injured.
  • (5) Doctors should be careful not to absolve the government of its public health obligations by substituting unproved preventive interventions aimed at the individual patient.
  • (6) This raises the prospect that businesses could effectively take an "emissions holiday", absolving them from the need to invest in energy efficiency and renewable power for several years.
  • (7) Hussain is trying to block the settlement, saying HP officials were wrongly absolved in the ill-fated acquisition of Autonomy for $11.1bn (£6.6bn) in 2011.
  • (8) We are also dismayed, however, at Tony Blair's recent attempts to absolve himself of any responsibility for the current crisis by isolating it from the legacy of the Iraq war .
  • (9) Leung’s office told the Age that the agreement “related to past, not future, service”, absolving Leung of the responsibility to disclose his gains.
  • (10) This does not mean schools will be absolved from any responsibilities in the strategy, since they have a vital role in educating children on diet, providing school sport and ensuring their own school dinners do not contain an excessive amount of fat, Issues that are likely to be tackled in the obesity strategy include: better information for parents on children’s diets; requiring processed products to state how many spoonfuls of added sugar they contain; and making it easier for consumers to make quick comparisons between competing brands.
  • (11) The drama currently unfolding in Greece has seen politicians stick to a tried and tested formula for passing the buck: when your back's against the wall, lash out at a third party in a desperate attempt to save face and absolve yourself of responsibility.
  • (12) But Kalashnikov seems to have found a way of absolving himself from any blame or responsibility for his baby's death toll.
  • (13) Yet they’ve turned into a two-tiered justice system wherein prosecutors are able to manipulate grand juries into pretty much whatever decision they please, and absolve themselves of any accountability when they rig the system for their allies.
  • (14) Two offsides and a set-piece,” Manuel Pellegrini, the City manager, complained, as he sought to play up the freakish nature of the result and absolve his goalkeeper and central defenders.
  • (15) Thus the eventual purpose of the counter-claims may not be to absolve the separatists fully, but to suggest they may have used a seized Ukrainian Buk system, rather than one sent across the border from Russia, thus formally absolving Moscow of blame.
  • (16) They also absolve long-term unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia as a mechanism of hepatic microsomal dysfunction.
  • (17) Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Everton manager, however, attempted to absolve Mirallas of blame but conceded the miss had affected the team’s confidence for the remainder of the game, one that extended their dreadful run to one win in 13 matches.
  • (18) That doesn’t absolve governments of their responsibilities for setting the regulatory framework and enforcement regimes.
  • (19) It’s ludicrous that people can go into a confessional box and confess horrendous crimes and be absolved.
  • (20) Newcastle were relegated at the end of that season with Alan Shearer having been drafted in for what was a desperate and ultimately vain attempt to drag them out of trouble, and Kinnear has since absolved himself of any responsibility for that disaster.

Forgive


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To give wholly; to make over without reservation; to resign.
  • (v. t.) To give up resentment or claim to requital on account of (an offense or wrong); to remit the penalty of; to pardon; -- said in reference to the act forgiven.
  • (v. t.) To cease to feel resentment against, on account of wrong committed; to give up claim to requital from or retribution upon (an offender); to absolve; to pardon; -- said of the person offending.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) One of the most interesting aspects of the shadow cabinet elections, not always readily interpreted because of the bizarre process of alliances of convenience, is whether his colleagues are ready to forgive and forget his long years as Brown's representative on earth.
  • (2) In 1999, Kamprad admitted his past involvement with Nazism in a book about his life and asked for forgiveness for his "stupidity."
  • (3) Perhaps he is instinctively more forgiving about avoiding tax, which some right-wingers always regard as an indecent affront, than the free use of public funds.
  • (4) He argues that whenever you have periods of crazy expansion of virtual credit, like today, you either have to have a safety valve of forgiveness, like in Mesopotamia where you wiped the tablets clean every seven years, or you have an outbreak of social violence so intense you rip society apart.
  • (5) The euro elite insists it is representing the interests of Portuguese or Irish taxpayers who have to pick up the bill for bailing out the feckless Greeks – or will be enraged by any debt forgiveness when they have been forced to swallow similar medicine.
  • (6) But Blair's address - "history will forgive us" - was a dubious exercise in group therapy: the cheers smacked of pathetic gratitude, as he piously pardoned the legislators, as well as himself, for the catastrophe of Iraq.
  • (7) Please, forgive me,” Choi Soon-sil, a cult leader’s daughter with a decades-long connection to Park, said through tears inside the Seoul prosecutor’s building, according to Yonhap news agency.
  • (8) Resisting dictatorships is more worthwhile than accepting them and thinking things will change by themselves.” Asked if the suffering for a majority of South Sudanese citizens could be stopped if Machar and his colleagues gave up the fight, the rebel leader says “giving up would be irresponsible” and that “history would not forgive him” for it.
  • (9) Women are forgiving if you can make it seem like this,” Rock Hard writes.
  • (10) I believe this has made it more possible to forgive.
  • (11) But we’ll know if things have changed when we can walk down the street after dark without being stopped.” Ron McBride, 48, was more forgiving.
  • (12) And it has proved too forgiving of welfare abuse, too obsessed with universal human rights, and too enthusiastic about immigration.
  • (13) Sometimes the public’s legitimate fears are exposed: in Colombia there’s no doubt the public felt uneasy about forgiving Farc for its bloody violence.
  • (14) The hardest thing is forgiving yourself, but it is necessary to do that.” As for the rest of the world and its concerns, Baez is willing to offer her personal support to causes that are particularly close to her heart, most notably the campaign against the death penalty in the United States.
  • (15) Yet in the wake of the second world war, West Germany managed to secure 15bn deutschmarks of debt forgiveness, in what became known as the London agreement.
  • (16) "Forgive me if I'm wrong, but does Crystal Palace-Spurs not count as a London derby?"
  • (17) When Margaret Thatcher died in April 2013, the Sheffield Star led with the headline: “We Will Never Forgive Her” .
  • (18) Both forgiveness and justice were related but distinct constructs.
  • (19) But the journalist Alexander Chancellor, a friend since Cambridge, agrees with Stoppard that despite sometimes sounding "over censorious, he is actually incredibly warm hearted and very forgiving.
  • (20) In return, the survivors were expected to offer forgiveness and the courts to impose lesser sentences, often resulting in immediate release from prison.