DISCHARGE, a word meaning relief from a load or burden, hence applied to the unloading of a ship, the firing of a weapon, the passage of electricity from an electrified body, the issue from a wound, etc. From the sense of relief from an obligation, "dis charge" is also applied to the release of a soldier or sailor from military or naval service, or of the crew of a merchant vessel, or to dismissal from an office or situation. In law, it is used of a. document or other evidence that can be accepted as proof of the release from an obligation, of the legal release of a person in cus tody on a criminal charge, and of the legal release of a bankrupt from debts provable in the bankruptcy with certain exceptions. It is also applied to the reversal of certain judicial orders. In divorce, where the order nisi is not made absolute, it is said to be discharged.