Emily Dickinson Lexicon

RE-DEEM', v.t. [L. redimo; red, re, and emo, to obtain or purchase.]

1. To purchase back; to ransom; to liberate or rescue from captivity or bondage, or from any obligation or liability to suffer or to be forfeited, by paying an equivalent; as, to redeem prisoners or captured goods; to redeem a pledge.
2. To repurchase what has been sold; to regain possession of a thing alienated, by repaying the value of it to the possessor. If a man [shall] sell a dwelling-house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold. – Lev. xxv.
3. To rescue; to recover; to deliver from. Th' Almighty from the grave / Hath me redeemed. – Sandys. Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles. – Ps. xxv. Deut. vii. The mass of earth not yet redeemed from chaos. – S. S. Smith.
4. To compensate; to make amends for. It is a chance which does redeem all sorrows. – Shak. By lesser ills the greater to redeem. – Dryden.
5. To free by making atonement. Thou hast one daughter, / Who redeems nature from the general curse. – Shak.
6. To pay the penalty of. Which of you will be mortal to redeem / Man's mortal crime? – Milton.
7. To save. He could not have redeemed a portion of his time for contemplating the powers of nature. – S. S. Smith.
8. To perform what has been promised; to make good by performance. He has redeemed his pledge or promise.
9. In law, to retail an estate, or to obtain the right to re-enter upon a mortgaged estate by paying to the mortgage his principal, interest, and expenses or costs. – Blackstone.
10. In theology, to rescue and deliver from the bondage of sin and the penalties of God's violated law, by obedience and suffering in the place of the sinner, or by doing and suffering that which is accepted in lieu of the sinner's obedience. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. – Gal. iii. Tit. ii.
11. In commerce, to purchase or pay the value in specie, of any promissory note, bill or other evidence of debt, given by the state, by a company or corporation, or by an individual. The credit of a state, a banking company or individuals, is good when they can redeem all their stock, notes or bills, at par. To redeem time, is to use more diligence in the improvement of it; to be diligent and active in duty and preparation. – Eph. v.