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''relief'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''relief'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260609164652-00-⌔

relief - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

relief (countable and uncountable, plural reliefs)

  • The removal of stress or discomfort.
    • ✤ Synonyms: ease, alleviation, liss, respite; see also Thesaurus: consolation
    • ✤ I sighed with relief when I found out that my daughter hadn’t got lost, but was waiting for me at home.
    • ✤ Although the Celebrity was almost impervious to sarcasm, he was now beginning to exhibit visible signs of uneasiness, […]. It was with a palpable relief that he heard the first warning notes of the figure.1
  • The feeling associated with the removal of stress or discomfort.
    • ✤ Synonyms: ease, alleviation, liss
    • ✤ Tony’s face expressed relief, and Nettie sat silent for a moment until the vicar said “It was a generous impulse, but it may have been a momentary one, […].”2
    • ✤ DfT’s action was greeted with great relief in many quarters.3
  • Release from a post or duty, as when replaced by another.
  • The person who takes over a shift for another.
    • ✤ Synonyms: stand-in, substitute, backup, fill-in
    • ✤ Officer Schmidt can finally go home because his relief has arrived.
    • ✤ At Leeds a relief crew was waiting—but without a relief locomotive; after some discussion, the new men offered to take on the A3. […].4
  • Aid or assistance offered in time of need.
    • ✤ * Relief arrived quickly after the disaster.*
    • ✤ On busy days, they also may be seen bowling along the Brighton main line, north of Keymer Junction, with a relief Newhaven boat express, […].5
  • (military) Military assistance to break a siege or an encirclement.
  • (law) Court-ordered compensation, aid, or protection, a redress.
    • ✤ Synonyms: amends, recompense, remuneration; see also Thesaurus: compensation
  • A lowering of a tax through special provisions; tax relief.
  • A certain fine or composition paid by the heir of a tenant upon the death of the ancestor.
  • (golf) Permission for a player to move their ball to a more convenient spot before taking a shot, under certain circumstances.
  • (Australia, New Zealand, colloquial) Ellipsis of relief teacher.
    • ✤ Do we have a relief for maths today?

Noun

relief (countable and uncountable, plural reliefs)

🖼️ ➺ 🖼️ ➺

  • (uncountable) A method of sculpture or other artwork in which shapes or figures protrude from a flat background.
  • (countable) A sculpture or other artwork made with such a method.
    • ✤ Synonym: embossing
  • The apparent difference in elevation in the surface of a painting or drawing made noticeable by a variation in light or color.
  • The difference of elevations on a surface.
    • ✤ Synonyms: texture, topography
    • ✤ the relief on that part of the Earth’s surface
    • ✤ The approach to Newcastle (Central) Station from the north after a heavy snowfall. The complicated track layout is thrown into clear relief by the snow [referring to dark rails poking through the snow]6
  • Relative distinctness, perceived difference due to contrast.
    • ✤ And is it that the haze of grief
      ⁠Hath stretch’d my former joy so great?
      ⁠The lowness of the present state,
      That sets the past in this relief?      7
  • (heraldry) The supposed projection of a charge from the surface of a field, indicated by shading on the sinister and lower sides.

Adjective

relief (comparative more relief, superlative most relief)

  • (of a surface) Characterized by surface inequalities.
  • Of or used in letterpress.

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ɹɪˈliːf/
  • Audio (US): 🔊
  • Rhymes: -iːf
  • Hyphenation: re‧lief

Etymology 1

From Old French relief (“assistance”), from Old French relever (“to relieve”), from Latin relevare (“to raise up, make light”). See also relieve.

Etymology 2

From Italian rilievo, from rilevare (“to raise”), from Latin relevō (“to raise”).

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

  1. 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC: ↩

  2. 1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 20, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC: ↩

  3. 2020 April 8, Philip Haigh, “Out of the current crisis we could see meaningful changes”, in Rail, page 56: ↩

  4. 1963 February, “Motive Power Miscellany: London Midland Region”, in Modern Railways, page 136: ↩

  5. 1950 November, R. A. H. Weight, “A Railway Recorder in Southern England”, in Railway Magazine, page 772: ↩

  6. 1947 January and February, “A Winter’s Day on the Tyneside”, in Railway Magazine, page 29, photo caption: ↩

  7. 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXIV”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 41: ↩

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