Brewer's: Manumit

To set free; properly “to send from one's hand” (e manu mittere). One of the Roman ways of freeing a slave was to take him before the chief magistrate and say, “I wish this man to be free.” The lictor or master then turned the slave round in a circle, struck him with a rod across the cheek, and let him go.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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