v. [ad. L. ēmittĕ-re to send forth, f. ē out + mittĕ-re to send.]
trans. To send forth: in certain special senses. (Not used with personal obj.)
1. To send forth as a stream or emanation.
a. To send forth, discharge (as a liquid or plastic substance); to exude (juices, etc.).
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., III. xiii. 137. It [the liquid secreted by toads] is emitted aversly or backward, by both sexes.
1712. Pope, Spect., No. 408, ¶ 3. So pure a Fountain emits no … troubled Waters.
1813. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem. (1814), 249. A tree which emits sap copiously from a wound.
1835–6. Todd, Cycl. Anat., I. 209/1. The threads by which the spiders suspend themselves … are emitted from the extremity of the abdomen.
1879. Sir J. Lubbock, Sci. Lect., iii. 71. The aphis emits a drop of sweet fluid.
b. To give off, throw out (‘effluvia,’ light, heat, gases, flames, sparks, etc.).
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 259. Both of them … doe not appeare to emit any Corporall Substance.
1692. Bentley, Boyle Lect., 227. By Effluvia and Spirits that are emitted.
1756–7. trans. Keysler’s Trav., IV. 452. The water … emits an ill smell.
1794. J. Hutton, Philos. Light, etc. 206. Those bodies may be heated so as to emit light.
1848. Mrs. Jameson, Sacr. & Leg. Art (1850), 64. The earth emits flames.
1869. E. A. Parkes, Pract. Hygiene (ed. 3), 89. An adult man … emits … carbonic acid gas by the skin.
fig. 1805. Foster, Ess., I. ii. 27. Emitting sentiment at every pore.
¶ intr.
1886. Daily News, 16 Sept., 7/2. Summoned … for … permitting … smells to emit from his stable.
c. transf.
1754. Hume, Hist. Eng., I. iii. 67. That multitude of nations which she had successively emitted.
† 2. To throw out as an offshoot. Obs.
1660. Sharrock, Vegetables, 117. More fresh sprouts of that Springs growth are emitted.
1676. Worlidge, Cider (1691), 57. The Root must be sometime in the Ground before its wound be healed, and new Fibres emitted to obtain a recruit of Sap.
1756. P. Browne, Jamaica, 105. This plant … emits a few simple stalks.
3. To give forth (sound).
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., III. xxxii. 339. They emit a grating noise.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., II. § 1. 224. A bell struck in a vacuum emits no sound.
1876. Smiles, Sc. Natur., vii. (ed. 4), 107. It did not emit any cry, such as the hare does.
4. To utter, give expression to (a statement, opinions, etc.).
1753. Stewart’s Trial, App. 4. All these declarations were emitted by the … persons … mentioned.
1805. Foster, Ess., III. i. 5. Emit plenty of antipathy in a few syllables.
1817. Jas. Mill, Brit. India, II. IV. vii. 261. Complaints were first emitted of the scarcity of money.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res. (1858), 179. How could a man … emit them [thoughts] in a shape bordering so closely on the absurd?
† 5. To issue, publish (books, documents, notices). Obs.
1637–50. Row, Hist. Kirk (1842), 361. Papers and books emitted for cleareing the wickednes of the Prelatts apostasie.
1723. Wodrow, Corr. (1843), III. 6. The public papers emitted that and next year.
1726. Ayliffe, Parergon, 180. To the end that a Citation be valid, it ought to be decreed and emitted by the Judge’s Authority.
1779. Johnson, Life Pope, Wks. IV. 23. Pope having now emitted his proposals.
1847. Sir W. Hamilton, Lett. to A. De Morgan, 37. But this declaration, now emitted, is contradicted by that very declaration, emitted in February.
6. To issue formally and by authority (edicts, proclamations; also, and now chiefly, paper currency, bills, etc.).
1649. Bp. Guthrie, Mem. (1702), 103. A Declaration Emitted by the English Parliament.
1672. Clarendon, Ess., in Tracts (1727), 264–5. Lewis … contemned that Excommunication and the Pope that emitted it.
1759. Hume, Hist. Gt. Brit., James II. II. ii. 413. The edicts, emitted from it, still wanted much of the authority of laws.
1789. Constit. U.S., I. § 10. No State shall … emit Bills of Credit.
1791. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1859), III. 268. A dollar of silver disappears for every dollar of paper emitted.
† 7. To send forth, let fly, discharge (a missile).
1704. Swift, Batt. Bks. (1711), 263. Having emitted his Launce against so great a Leader.
c. 1720. Prior, 2nd Hymn of Callimachus to Apollo, Poems 244. Lest … the far-shooting God emit His fatal arrows.
