Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To cause a lessening or alleviation of.
- transitive verb To make less tedious, monotonous, or unpleasant.
- transitive verb To free from pain, anxiety, or distress.
- transitive verb To furnish assistance or aid to.
- transitive verb To rescue from siege.
- transitive verb To release (a person) from an obligation, restriction, or burden.
- transitive verb To free from a specified duty by providing or acting as a substitute.
- transitive verb Baseball To enter the game as a relief pitcher after (another pitcher).
- transitive verb Informal To rob or deprive.
- transitive verb Archaic To make prominent or effective by contrast; set off.
- idiom (relieve (oneself)) To urinate or defecate.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To lift up; set up a second time; hence, to collect; assemble.
- To remove, wholly or partially, as anything that depresses, weighs down, pains, oppresses, etc.; mitigate; alleviate; lessen.
- To free, wholly or partly, from pain, grief, want, anxiety, trouble, encumbrance, or anything that is considered to be an evil; give ease, comfort, or consolation to; help; aid; support; succor: as, to
relieve the poor and needy. - Specifically, to bring efficient help to (a besieged place); raise the siege of.
- To release from a post, station, task, or duty by substituting another person or party; put another in the place of, or take the place of, in the performance of any duty, the bearing of any burden, or the like: as, to
relieve a sentinel or guard. - To ease of any burden, wrong, or oppression by judicial or legislative interposition, by indemnification for losses, or the like; right.
- To give assistance to; support.
- To mitigate; lessen; soften.
- To give relief or prominence to, literally or figuratively; hence, to give contrast to; heighten the effect or interest of, by contrast or variety.
- Synonyms Mitigate. Assuage, etc. (see
alleviate ); diminish, lighten. - To rise; arise.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb obsolete To lift up; to raise again, as one who has fallen; to cause to rise.
- transitive verb To cause to seem to rise; to put in relief; to give prominence or conspicuousness to; to set off by contrast.
- transitive verb To raise up something in; to introduce a contrast or variety into; to remove the monotony or sameness of.
- transitive verb To raise or remove, as anything which depresses, weighs down, or crushes; to render less burdensome or afflicting; to alleviate; to abate; to mitigate; to lessen
- transitive verb To free, wholly or partly, from any burden, trial, evil, distress, or the like; to give ease, comfort, or consolation to; to give aid, help, or succor to; to support, strengthen, or deliver.
- transitive verb To release from a post, station, or duty; to put another in place of, or to take the place of, in the bearing of any burden, or discharge of any duty.
- transitive verb To ease of any imposition, burden, wrong, or oppression, by judicial or legislative interposition, as by the removal of a grievance, by indemnification for losses, or the like; to right.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb free from a burden, evil, or distress
- verb save from ruin, destruction, or harm
- verb grant relief or an exemption from a rule or requirement to
- verb lessen the intensity of or calm
- verb relieve oneself of troubling information
- verb provide physical relief, as from pain
- verb grant exemption or release to
- verb take by stealing
- verb provide relief for
- verb alleviate or remove (pressure or stress) or make less oppressive
- verb free someone temporarily from his or her obligations
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Many moons ago, on the mainland of Europe, I first heard the phrase "relieve pressure by creating it where least expected".
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I educate women and the public on the games people play when they try to, as I call it, "relieve you of your money."
The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com The Huffington Post 2012
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I guess her boyfriend just wanted to give her ample time to "relieve" herself.
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Where subsistence is doled out, the desideratum has been achieved, of general want and a superior power to "relieve" it.
You've gone to the best schools, gotten the best grades, now why can't you get a good job being a good person for a good salary? Ann Althouse 2007
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So does she feel like there should be more active duty presence to kind of relieve that pressure on all the reservists and National Guard?
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[4] The translator's word 'relieve' (relyuue) represents
Chronicle and Romance (The Harvard Classics Series) Thomas Malory Jean Froissart
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On other days he dined later, by himself, but at the family table, when Mrs. Baines or one of the assistants could "relieve" him in the shop.
The Old Wives' Tale Arnold Bennett 1899
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Sainte-Beuve -- no weak-stomached reader -- was put off by its blotches of blood and grime, and by the sort of ghastly gorgeousness which, if it does not "relieve" these, forms a kind of background to throw them up.
A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 To the Close of the 19th Century George Saintsbury 1889
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These men, with the exception of two or three who formed the permanent crew of the tender, were either going off to "relieve" their comrades and take their turn on board the floating lights, or were on their way to land, having been "relieved" -- such as George Welton the mate, Dick Moy, and
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Astringent tonics, are such as relieve floodings and hemorrhages of every kind and may be advantageously employed in all profuse evacuations and relaxed states of the system.
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