What's the difference between acquit and acquittal?

Acquit


Definition:

  • (p. p.) Acquitted; set free; rid of.
  • (v. t.) To discharge, as a claim or debt; to clear off; to pay off; to requite.
  • (v. t.) To pay for; to atone for.
  • (v. t.) To set free, release or discharge from an obligation, duty, liability, burden, or from an accusation or charge; -- now followed by of before the charge, formerly by from; as, the jury acquitted the prisoner; we acquit a man of evil intentions.
  • (v. t.) To clear one's self.
  • (v. t.) To bear or conduct one's self; to perform one's part; as, the soldier acquitted himself well in battle; the orator acquitted himself very poorly.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) He was, however, acquitted of criminal charges over this.
  • (2) Several top police commanders were acquitted, and Mubarak and his sons were found not guilty of corruption charges.
  • (3) An MRF sergeant was acquitted of attempted murder following a trial in 1973.
  • (4) She was then tried and acquitted on phone-hacking charges in 2014, leaving her to work out how to restart her career.
  • (5) 9 January 2012: Anwar is acquitted of sodomy charges.
  • (6) He was acquitted of assault by beating after a four-day trial in which his alleged victim, protester Nicola Fisher, declined to give evidence.
  • (7) After the murder he replaced Morgan at Southern Investigations to work alongside Jonathan Rees, who was tried for the murder and acquitted.
  • (8) While he was acquitted of rape, his remark that he took a shower after having sex with an HIV-positive woman to minimise the risk of infection caused fury.
  • (9) Francis Dixon, 38, from Stalybridge, was acquitted of the murder of David Short, the attempted murder of Hark and causing an explosion with a hand grenade.
  • (10) Colonel Jorge Mendonca was acquitted of failing to ensure that his men did not mistreat prisoners who were being held at a British detention centre in Basra, southern Iraq .
  • (11) In 2005 Mallah was acquitted of two terrorism offences but pleaded guilty to threatening to kill Asio officials.
  • (12) It’s about why this government chose to not upgrade Don Dale and to throw children in a derelict male prison.” Lawrence said the problems of juveniles in NT prisons had to be addressed “by a system that’s properly resourced, providing nothing less than best practice which is acquitted by fully qualified and professionally trained staff, creating appropriate behavioural programs and education for adolescent offenders of various types and backgrounds”.
  • (13) The 58-year-old, who recently served a four-month ban by the Football League for failing to pay tax on a yacht, was acquitted of customs offences on the Range Rover, which had been imported from the United States.
  • (14) Two recent high-profile cases have made the headlines: a doctor accused of administering drugs that hastened the deaths of seven elderly patients was acquitted, and France's high court authorised doctors to stop treating and feeding a young man who had been in a vegetative state on life support for six years.
  • (15) An inquest last year ruled that Harwood unlawfully killed him, but a trial jury acquitted the officer of manslaughter in July.
  • (16) If the various Ivan Milat murders had been tried individually he would almost certainly have been acquitted.
  • (17) Two years ago, Olmert was acquitted of separate corruption charges relating to his dealings with a US businessman, which had forced his resignation as prime minister in 2008.
  • (18) However, Azmi and others said that a series of terrorist cases in recent years in which Muslims had been suspected, investigated and often incarcerated for long periods before being acquitted had damaged trust in the police and, more broadly, the government.
  • (19) • This clarification was posted on 30 March 2011: An editing error in the footnote above wrongly suggested that all six men convicted, and later acquitted on appeal, of the Birmingham pub bombings were represented by Gareth Peirce.
  • (20) He directed them to acquit Payne of manslaughter and of intending to pervert the course of justice.

Acquittal


Definition:

  • (n.) The act of acquitting; discharge from debt or obligation; acquittance.
  • (n.) A setting free, or deliverance from the charge of an offense, by verdict of a jury or sentence of a court.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) He said that some voters would see Monday's acquittal as a positive step in the reforms recently enacted by the prime minister, Najib Razak.
  • (2) Because of multiple effusions of blood of variable age located at the child's body the stepmother was noticed and accused of assault and battery, but the trial ended in acquittal.
  • (3) Noye claimed the way the press had reported his acquittal in the Fordham case was "absolutely scandalous".
  • (4) Speaking outside Southwark crown court minutes after the acquittal by the eight-man, four-woman jury, Redknapp said he and his family had been through a "nightmare" as they waited for justice.
  • (5) After winning stage three, he maintains his advantage until the end of the race, despite the UCI revealing it would challenge the Spaniard's domestic acquittal on doping charges.
  • (6) Today's verdict ‑ the striking-off of Wakefield and Prof John Walker-Smith, who was in charge of the department of paediatric gastroenterology at the Royal Free hospital in London, where the research took place and the acquittal of the-then junior consultant Simon Murch, who had doubts about the project ‑ was about ethics and honesty, not science.
  • (7) If the law was changed, Macpherson predicted, fresh trials after acquittal would be exceptional and appropriate safeguards would be essential.
  • (8) Announcing that the acquittal on 1 November was erroneous, the Athens public prosecutor's office said the journalist should be retried by a higher misdemeanour court on the same charges.
  • (9) The appeal judges concluded that there was "sufficient reliable and substantial new evidence to justify the quashing of the acquittal and to order a new trial".
  • (10) "These writers keep getting tried, and we keep getting acquittals."
  • (11) Many will have been surprised by the officer's acquittal yesterday after a district judge concluded that the prosecution had failed to prove that he had not acted in "lawful self-defence."
  • (12) Yet not one had raised similar concerns about the acquittal of Nicholas Jacobs on a charge of murdering PC Keith Blakelock at Broadwater Farm the previous day ( Report , 10 April).
  • (13) The verdict is above all a triumph of state power, exemplified by the acquittal of the interior ministry's main commanders who oversaw police actions during the revolution.
  • (14) It is not uncommon for illiberal – in this case, deeply authoritarian – regimes to use a security threat (whether real, imagined, or self-created) as a pretext for singling out alleged ‘traitors’ and cracking down on civil society and individual critics.” Lawyer Khalid Bagirov, who is acting on behalf of all four activists, said the arrests are politically motivated, and added that their acquittal is nigh on “impossible”.
  • (15) The radical Islamist preacher Abu Qatada will not be able to return to Britain despite his surprise acquittal by the Jordanian state security court on terrorism conspiracy charges.
  • (16) He said the "adversarial nature of our criminal trial system in this country is designed to test the evidence given by witnesses; be they for the prosecution or defence so as to ensure safe conviction and acquittal of the innocent".
  • (17) "We were innocent when the Kremlin locked us up: it was not amnesty that we expected from Putin; we demand acquittal," she told the Guardian.
  • (18) If white Americans need black villains to feel superior in their decline as 2015 closes – and as the leading demagogue Republican candidate for president can confirm, they do – then innocent victims like Tamir will continue to be killed, and those who do so will be rewarded with acquittal, fame or even promotion .
  • (19) Rees, a convicted criminal, attacked the police's conduct after his acquittal claiming they had ignored 40 other suspects and added: "One disgraceful aspect is that senior police purported to take seriously people with mental health problems and career criminals merely trying to benefit themselves."
  • (20) They conclude that dismissal based on incompetence to stand trial became a substitute for acquittal based on the insanity plea under mens rea.