1The action of forgiving or being forgiven for an error or offence.

1. 1.1count noun A cancellation of the legal consequences of an offence or conviction.
   he offered a full pardon to five convicted men

   Example sentencesExamples

   • The death penalty may only be imposed for the most serious crimes with sentenced persons enjoying the right to seek a pardon or other commutation of the sentence.
   • He could grant full or partial pardons; he could make them conditional or unconditional.
   • There was public feeling that notwithstanding the granting of the pardons the conviction should be quashed.
   • To be sure, governors do sometimes exercise quasi-judicial functions - for example, in granting pardons to convicted offenders.
   • Thirdly, it was conceded by the applicant's own witnesses that a decision by the President of Singapore on the advice of cabinet to comply with the undertaking and grant a pardon was not justiciable in Singapore.
   • She left jail after two years and ever since has been seeking a full pardon.
   • On May 15, 1997, before he requested the transfer of the property, David obtained a pardon from his criminal convictions.
   • The bills that legislators failed to deliberate upon last session included a resolution of industrial disputes, a commission on corruption eradication, electricity, legal pardons and property rights.
   • It turns out that New Square leaders lobbied for full pardons but did not get them.
   • His successor, Gerald Ford, offered him a full pardon.
   • The previous day, the governor granted full pardons to four other death row prisoners, based on overwhelming evidence that Chicago police had coerced false confessions from them through the use of physical torture.
   • Would it not have been better for the remaining millions of British people if our all-powerful law machine had granted him a full pardon, together with an order never to set foot on British soil for the rest of his lifetime?
   • The Australian Government says Indonesia has an independent judiciary and a pardon is only appropriate after a conviction.
   • The pattern of pardons indicates that grand larceny, for which twenty-eight women were pardoned, was the one category of offence worthy of clemency.
   • The old man wants to arrange a meeting with the governor of the state and get a full pardon from killing 21 men.
   • The Court has not yet addressed the impact of Article 6 on proceedings evaluating applications for pardons.
   • Ideally, those imprisoned could make it out, and there was the promise of a full pardon upon making the exit.
   • The King conferred revised sentences - notably four full pardons and a reinstatement - on the group, which included three majors and two lieutenant colonels.
   • Such cases were specifically excluded from the amnesty laws and the presidential pardons.
   • He added that in light of extradition requests and anti-terrorism conventions, the pardons were illegal under international law as well.

   Synonyms

   reprieve, free pardon, general pardon, amnesty, exoneration, exculpation, release, acquittal, discharge

   rare oblivion
2. 1.2Christian Church count noun An indulgence, as widely sold in medieval Europe.
   Example sentencesExamples

   • In medieval times a practice of dealing in pardons developed.
   • According to Geoff Egan, a medieval finds specialist at the Museum of London, the seals were most likely attached to papal indulgences, which could be corruptly bought from the Church as a pardon for a lifetime's sins.
   • An arrested Christian could receive a pardon simply by offering incense on a Roman altar, but many refused to do so, citing scripture passages urging faith in the one God.
   • Christians are to be taught that he who sees a man in need, and passes him by, and gives [his money] for pardons, purchases not the indulgences of the pope, but the indignation of God.

1Forgive or excuse (a person, error, or offence)

1. 1.1 Release (an offender) from the legal consequences of an offence or conviction, and often implicitly from blame.
   he was pardoned for his treason

   Example sentencesExamples

   • He was pardoned for all three convictions and one was expunged, yet husband and wife lived apart for more than two years.
   • No one who has been finally acquitted or convicted of, or pardoned for, an offence shall be tried or punished for it again.
   • Two ringleaders convicted of treason were pardoned by Washington.
   • Defence chiefs were last night under renewed pressure to pardon hundreds of soldiers executed for cowardice during the First World War after it emerged that several officers were spared the firing squad for the same offence.
   • When these men appear in leet records it is often to intervene in cases to persuade bailiffs to pardon offenders.
   • Eventually the defendants were released and pardoned by the state governor.
   • By the end of the 1990s, there had been only 10 people convicted - all of whom were subsequently pardoned and released.
   • Victims and survivors attended amnesty applications and have the right to know if persons denied amnesty have now been pardoned.
   • ‘He will be given an amnesty, pardoned, after being judged guilty,’ he told the newspaper during a recent visit to Rome.
   • But those measures do not benefit the Swiss citizens who have now been pardoned.
   • Forgiving is not identical with simply forgetting about an offense, finding an excuse or justification for the perpetrator, or even displaying mercy to the offender and pardoning him or her.
   • Her parents claimed she was taken by a dingo: her mother was tried, convicted, pardoned, and finally acquitted, on a charge of infanticide.
   • The President declares a proclamation of amnesty that will pardon any Confederate state that supports the union, but both the North and the South criticize it.
   • A Japanese photojournalist on Wednesday again expressed remorse to victims and their families of a blast at Amman airport in May after being pardoned and released from prison in connection with the fatal blast.
   • Five successive British governments have rejected appeals to pardon the soldiers and the Ministry of Defence refuses to re-open the court martial files, even on the youngest troops.
   • However, they were later pardoned and amnesty laws now protect most officers from trial.
   • Pressure has been building on the British Government to pardon the Irish soldiers for more than a decade.
   • Pursuant to English common law, the King had flexible powers to pardon offenses either before or after indictment, conviction or sentencing.
   • So let us make the best of it by pardoning the lawbreakers and gate-crashers, legalizing the coming invasion, and welcoming the entire family of any ‘guest worker’ who can find a job.
   • Veterans groups are hoping for an Act of Parliament that would officially pardon the soldiers, victims of an unforgiving time.

   Synonyms

   exonerate, acquit, amnesty, exculpate

   let off, grant a pardon to, reprieve, release, free, spare
2. 1.2be pardoned Used to indicate that someone is justified in doing or thinking a particular thing given the circumstances.
   one can be pardoned the suspicion that some of his errors were deliberate

   Example sentencesExamples

   • One could be pardoned for thinking, your Honours, that in 1988 the New South Wales Parliament thought that they were getting rid of those.
   • Before the great auk became extinct in the 1840s, you could have been pardoned for making the classic mistake and supposing there were penguins in the Arctic as well as the Antarctic, the cold north as well as the cold south.

A request to a speaker to repeat something because one did not hear or understand it.