Both Uses of
liberate
in
Killing Kennedy
- The experimental Liberator bomber in which he is flying explodes over England on August 12, 1944.†
p. 31.3 *liberator = someone who sets others free
- In fact, ever since that epic moment in 1898 when Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders charged up San Juan Hill to liberate Cuba from Spain, the Cuban-U.S. relationship was mostly peaceful, free of tension, and, in a word, easy.†
p. 46.8
Definitions:
-
(1)
(liberate) to set free -- as from prison, political oppression, persecution, expectations...
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
In chemistry liberate can specifically mean to free something (such as a gas) from a compound through chemical reaction. Even more rarely, liberate is used in a humorous way as a synonym for stealing (taking without permission).