If people are emancipated, they are freed from unpleasant or unfair social, political, or legal restrictions. Catholics were emancipated in 1792 That war preserved the Union and emancipated the slaves the newly emancipated state = liberate + emancipation eman·ci·pa·tion the emancipation of women. to give someone the political or legal rights that they did not have before (emancipatus, past participle of emancipare, from mancipium )