The Webster's Online Dictionary defines affranchisement as "the act of making free". According to TheFreeDictionary.com, "to affranchise" means "to release from servitude or an obligation". The work English Synonyms Discriminated explains that "affranchisement applies only to those who were parties to the compact dissolved, and deliverance only to those who were not parties". This means that the term is used in the following way: "the master...affranchises the slave".