TY, a term meaning, in general, want of ability, and used in law
to denote an incapacity in certain persons or classes of persons for the
full enjoyment of duties or privileges, which, but for their
disqualification, would be open to them; hence, legal disqualification.
Thus, married women, persons under age, insane persons, convicted felons
are under disability to do certain legal acts. This disability may be
absolute, wholly disabling the person so long as it continues, or
partial, ceasing on discontinuation of the disabling state, as
attainment of full age.

DISCHARGE (adapted from the O. Fr. _descharge_, modern _decharge_, from
a med. Lat. _discargare_, to unload, _dis-_ and _carricare_, to load,
cf. "charge"), 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, &c.
From the sense of relief from an obligation, "discharge" 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 the 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, as of a receipt,
on payment of money due. Similarly it is applied to the release in
accordance with law of a person in custody on a criminal charge, and to
the legal release of a bankrupt from further liability for debts
provable in the bankruptcy except those incurred by fraud or debts to
the crown. It is also applied to the reversal of an order of a court. In
the case of divorce, where the rule _nisi_ is not made absolute, the
rule is said to be discharged.

DISCHARGING ARCH, in architecture, an arch built over a lintel or
architrave to take off the superincumbent weight. The earliest example
is found in the Great Pyramid, over the lintels of the entrance passage
to the tomb: it consisted of two stones only, resting one against the
other. The same object was attained in the Lion Gate and the tomb of
Agamemnon, both in Mycenae, and in other examples in Greece, where the
stones laid in horizontal courses, one projecting over the other, left a
triangular hollow space above the lintel of the door, which was
subsequently filled in by vertical sculptured stone panels. The Romans
frequently employed the discharging arch, and inside the portico of the
Pantheon the architraves