• releeve(obsolete)

From LateMiddle Englishreleven, fromOld Frenchrelever, specifically from the conjugated forms such as(jeo) relieve(“I lift up”), and its source,Latinrelevo(“to lift up, lighten, relieve, alleviate”), combined form ofre-(“back”) +levo(“to lift”).Doublet ofrelevate. Comparelevant,levity, etc.

• IPA^(key):/ɹɪˈliːv/

• Audio(US):

  (file)

• Rhymes:-iːv

relieve (third-person singular simple presentrelieves,present participlerelieving,simple past and past participlerelieved)

1. (transitive) Toease (a person, person's thoughts etc.) from mentaldistress; to stop (someone) feelinganxious or worried, to alleviate the distress of.[from 14th c.]

   I was greatlyrelieved by the jury's verdict.

   • 1897 December (indicated as1898),Winston Churchill, chapter V, inThe Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.:The Macmillan Company; London:Macmillan & Co., Ltd.,→OCLC:

     Then we relapsed into a discomfited silence, and wished we were anywhere else. But Miss Thornrelieved the situation by laughing aloud, and with such a hearty enjoyment that instead of getting angry and more mortified we began to laugh ourselves, and instantly felt better.

2. (transitive) Toease (someone, a part of the body etc.) or giverelief from physical pain or discomfort.[from 14th c.]

   Synonym:liss

3. (transitive) Toalleviate (pain, distress, mental discomfort etc.).[from 14th c.]
4. (transitive) To providecomfort orassistance to (someone in need, especially in poverty).[from 14th c.]
5. (obsolete) Tolift up; toraise again.[15th–17th c.]
6. (nowrare) Toraise (someone) out of danger orfrom (a specified difficulty etc.).[from 15th c.]
7. (law) To free (someone) fromdebt or legal obligations; to give legal relief to.[from 15th c.]

   This shall notrelieve either Party of any obligations.

8. (transitive) To bringmilitary help to (a besieged town); to lift the siege on.[from 16th c.]
   • 1994,John H. Makin,Norman J. Ornstein,Debt and Taxes: How America Got into Its Budget Mess and What We Can Do about It, New York, NY:Times Books,→ISBN, page52:

     In 1574, the duke of Alva laid siege to Leiden to gain control of Holland's most beautiful and prosperous city. Torelieve the siege, William of Orange and his followers opened the city's protective dikes to flush out—literally—the surrounding Spanish forces.

9. Torelease (someone) from or of adifficulty, unwanted task, responsibility etc.[from 16th c.]
   • 2014, James Lambert, “A Much Tortured Expression: A New Look at ‘Hobson-Jobson’”, inInternational Journal of Lexicography, volume27, number 1, page57:

     They had thought it obsolete, but, wererelieved of this misapprehension by Yule’s friend Major Trotter.

10. (originallymilitary) To free (someone) from their post, task etc. by taking their place.[from 16th c.]
11. (nowrare) To make (something)stand out; to makeprominent, bring intorelief.[from 18th c.]
    • 1819,Lord Byron,Don Juan, III.76:

      The henna should be deeply dyed to make / The skinrelieved appear more fairly fair[…]

    • 1927,Countee Cullen,From the Dark Tower:

      The night whose sable breastrelieves the stark / White stars is no less lovely being dark

1. (reflexive,euphemistic) Tourinate ordefecate.[from 20th c.]

   Synonyms:seeThesaurus:defecate,Thesaurus:urinate

   • 1989,Snyder v. Harmon, 562 A.2d 307 (Pa. 1989) (Zappala, J., writing for the majority), Pennsylvania Supreme Court

     As they traveled along L.R. 33060, one of the passengers mentioned he had torelieve himself, so Barrett stopped the car along the berm of the road, which, unbeknown to the travelers, was directly adjacent to a strip mine.

   • 2017, Hannah Frith, “Ejaculatory Timing and Masculine Identities: The Politics of Ab/normalising Sexual Performance”, in Jonathon Louth, Martin Potter, editors,Edges of Identity: The Production of Neoliberal Subjectivities, Chester, England: University of Chester Press,→ISBN, page161:

     For example, the times and locales for defecation and urination have come under tighter regulation in the modern West to meet an increasing demand – explicitly articulated in workplace rules and regulations – that peoplerelieve themselvesnot whenever or wherever they feel like it but at an appropriate time and place (Inglis & Holmes, 2000).

2. (reflexive,euphemistic) To ease one's owndesire toorgasm, often throughmasturbation to orgasm.

   Synonyms:seeThesaurus:masturbate

   • 2014, Abbie Smith,Celibate Sex: Musings on Being Loved, Single, Twisted, and Holy:

     Nevertheless, torelieve oneself takes the edge off the desire and doesn't take advantage of others.

• “relieve”, inWebster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.:G. & C. Merriam,1913,→OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney,Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “relieve”, inThe Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.:The Century Co.,→OCLC.

• IPA^(key):/reˈljebe/[reˈlje.β̞e]

• Audio(Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes:-ebe
• Syllabification:re‧lie‧ve

relieve m (pluralrelieves)

1. relief(protrusion)

• “relieve”, inDiccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8,Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish:Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10