remit

Etymology

verb

1. (transitive) To transmit or send (e.g. money in payment); to supply.
   Such a Step as this would raise a Succession of able Seamen, and in a few Years would come to remit a thousand, or perhaps two or three thousand sturdy Youths every Year into the general Class of English Seamen; 1728, Daniel Defoe, chapter 3, in Some Considerations on the Reasonableness and Necessity of Encreasing and Encouraging the Seamen, London, page 45
   The Supreme Court today allowed major sponsors, including LG Electronics India (LGEI), to remit foreign exchange for the tournament. 2003: The Hindu, World Cup sponsors can remit money in forex: SC read at https://web.archive.org/web/20060308013536/http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/02/01/stories/2003020104090100.htm on 14 May 2006
2. (transitive) To forgive, pardon (a wrong, offence, etc.).
   So he said that there was no sin to remit in baptism: ‘sin is not born with a man, it is subsequently committed by the man; for it is shown to be a fault, not of nature, but of the human will’. 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 307
3. (transitive) To refrain from exacting or enforcing.
   to remit the performance of an obligation
   1798, Hannah Brand, Huniades; or, The Siege of Belgrade, Act V, Scene 8, in Plays and Poems, Norwich, p. 131, I knelt for pardon, for this breach of Oath, Which, thou forgiving, I then shall hope Heaven will remit hereafter punishment;
4. (transitive, obsolete) To give up; omit; cease doing.
   1761, George Colman, The Genius, No. 12, 19 November, 1761, in Prose on Several Occasions, London: T. Cadel, 1787, p. 124, Among our own sex, there is no race of men more apt to indulge a spirit of acrimony, and to remit their natural Good Humour, than authors.
   He who connected himself with a woman whose brother, sister, or other relations, were fugitives, would probably be tempted to remit his pursuit of them, and even to favour their concealment. 1803, Robert Charles Dallas, The History of the Maroons, London: Longman and Rees, Volume 1, Letter 5, p. 125
   I was obliged at last almost entirely to remit my visits to the Grove, at the expense of deeply offending Mrs. Hargrave and seriously afflicting poor Esther, who really values my society for want of better … 1848, Anne Brontë, chapter 37, in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
5. (transitive) To allow (something) to slacken, to relax (one's attention etc.).
   The wind at sea generally blows with an even steady gale; the wind at land puffs by intervals, encreasing its strength, and remitting it, without any apparent cause. 1774, Oliver Goldsmith, chapter 20, in An History of the Earth: and Animated Nature, volume 1, London: J. Nourse, page 352
   Their confidence revived, they might in a short time remit in some degree their watchfulness over my movements, and I should then be the better enabled to avail myself of any opportunity which presented itself for escape. 1846, Herman Melville, chapter 18, in Typee
6. (intransitive, obsolete) To show a lessening or abatement (of a specified quality).
   Great Alexander in the midst of all his prosperity […], when he saw one of his wounds bleed, remembered that he was but a man, and remitted of his pride. , New York 2001, p.132-3
   1775, Samuel Jackson Pratt, The Legend of Benignus, Chapter 5, in Liberal Opinions, upon Animals, Man, and Providence, London: G. Robinson and J. Bew, Volume 1, p. 97, At the end of about two months, the severity of my fate began to remit of its rigour.
7. (intransitive, obsolete) To diminish, abate.
   [The water] sustains these Particles, and carries them on together with it ’till such time as its Motion begins to remit and be less rapid than it was at, and near its Source; 1695, John Woodward, An Essay toward a Natural History of the Earth and Terrestrial Bodies, London: Richard Wilkin, Part 4, p. 198
   1720, Alexander Pope, The Iliad of Homer, London: Bernard Lintott, Volume 6, “Observations on the Twenty-Second Book,” no. 25, p. 52, … this is very agreeable to the Nature of Achilles; his Anger abates very slowly; it is stubborn, yet still it remits:
   1783, Samuel Johnson, letter to James Boswell dated 30 September, 1783, in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, London: Charles Dilly, 1791, Volume 2, p. 467, … I have been for these ten days much harrassed with the gout, but that has now remitted.
8. (transitive) To refer (something or someone) for deliberation, judgment, etc. (to a particular body or person).
   … in grieuous and inhumane crimes, in such as ouerthrow the foundation of state, in such as shake the surety of humane society, I conceiue it more fit that offenders should be remitted to their Prince to be punished in the place where they haue offended. 1630, John Hayward, The Life and Raigne of King Edward the Sixt, London: John Partridge, page 119
9. (transitive, obsolete) To send back.
10. (transitive, archaic) To give or deliver up; surrender; resign.
11. (transitive) To restore or replace.
12. (transitive) To postpone.
13. (transitive, obsolete) To refer (someone to something), direct someone's attention to something.
    1668, Joseph Glanvill, Plus Ultra, or, The Progress and Advancement of Knowledge since the Days of Aristotle, London: James Collins, Preface, These are the things I thought fit to premise to my Discourse, to which now I remit your Eyes, without adding more …
    For the definitions of regularity, uniformity, proportion, and order, if thought necessary, I remit my reader to the appendix at the end of the book. 1762, Henry Home, Lord Kames, chapter 3, in Elements of Criticism, volume 1, Edinburgh: A. Kincaid & J. Bell, page 247

noun

1. (chiefly Britain) Terms of reference; set of responsibilities; scope.
   WHO/TDR should prepare a volume containing ... important issues in the performance of studies that fall outside of the GLP remit. 2000: Scientific Working Group on Good Laboratory Practice issues, Handbook: Good Laboratory Practice read on World Health Organisation website at https://web.archive.org/web/20060325195225/http://www.who.int/tdr/publications/publications/pdf/glp-handbook.pdf on 14 May 2006
   However, this is beyond the remit of this particular article. 2001: H. Meinardi et al, ILAE Commission, The treatment gap in epilepsy: the current situation and ways forward read at http://www.ilae-epilepsy.org/pubs/JAN2001.PDF on 14 May 2006
   Next steps ... Create one IS organisation and extend remit to all HE activities. 2003: Andy Macleod, Cisco Systems, Pulling it all together - the 21st Century Campus read at http://www.ciscoeventreg.net/go/presentations/event3/a_macleod.pdf on 14 May 2006
   2012, The Economist, Sep 29th 2012 issue, Chile's economic statistics: For richer—or poorer Chile needs to gather together its statisticians into a single agency, such as a new and improved INE, and give it more autonomy and a broader remit.
   As an adjunct to the new corporate plan, the sector produced a 20-page prospectus explaining how it would fulfil its remit, which was approved by the Minister. January 2 2020, David Clough, “How InterCity came back from the brink”, in Rail, page 66
2. (law) A communication from a superior court to a subordinate court.