All 7 Uses of

acquit

in

Great Expectations

For such reasons, I was very glad when ten o'clock came and we started for Miss Havisham's; though I was not at all at my ease regarding the manner in which I should acquit myself under that lady's roof.
Chpt 8 *

acquit = handle (conduct or behave)

A score or so of years ago, that woman was tried at the Old Bailey for murder, and was acquitted.
Chpt 48

acquitted = officially found "not guilty"

"Yes; but not only that," said Wemmick, "she went into his service immediately after her acquittal, tamed as she is now."
Chpt 48 *

acquittal = official finding of "not guilty"

This acquitted young woman and Provis had a little child; a little child of whom Provis was exceedingly fond.
Chpt 50

After the acquittal she disappeared, and thus he lost the child and the child's mother.
Chpt 50

acquittal = official finding of "not guilty"

Definitions:

(1) (acquit as in: she was acquitted)
to officially find "not guilty" of criminal charges

Note that to be acquitted is not the same as being declared innocent of an offense due to the presumption of innocence in the American judicial system. The court determines if there is sufficient evidence to find someone guilty. Some crimes require a lot of evidence for a conviction, so while there may not be enough evidence to declare someone guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt, there also may not be enough evidence to declare a defendant innocent except through the presumption of innocence.
(2) (acquit as in: she acquitted herself well)
to handle oneself in a specified way -- which is typically in a positive way
(3) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
Much less commonly and archaically, acquit can have other meanings. It can mean to release from a duty, as when Jane Austen wrote "I cannot acquit him of that duty" in her novel, Pride and Prejudice.

It can also mean to perform or complete an obligation, as when Charles Dickens wrote "I have a business charge to acquit myself of," in his novel, A Tale of Two Cities.