reprieve
Americanverb (used with object)
-
reprieves,
present (3rd person singular)
-
reprieved,
past participle, past
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reprieving
present participle
-
to delay the impending punishment or sentence of (a condemned person).
-
to relieve temporarily from any evil.
noun
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reprieves
plural
-
a respite from impending punishment, as from execution of a sentence of death.
-
a warrant authorizing this.
-
any respite or temporary relief.
- Synonyms:
- deferment, stay, postponement, delay
verb
-
to postpone or remit the punishment of (a person, esp one condemned to death)
-
to give temporary relief to (a person or thing), esp from otherwise irrevocable harm
the government has reprieved the company with a huge loan
noun
-
a postponement or remission of punishment, esp of a person condemned to death
-
a warrant granting a postponement
-
a temporary relief from pain or harm; respite
-
the act of reprieving or the state of being reprieved
Synonym Usage
See pardon.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
reprievesimple
-
reprievessimple
-
have reprievedperfect
-
has reprievedperfect
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am reprievingprogressive
-
are reprievingprogressive
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is reprievingprogressive
-
have been reprievingperfect progressive
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has been reprievingperfect progressive
Past
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reprievedsimple
-
had reprievedperfect
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was reprievingprogressive
-
were reprievingprogressive
-
had been reprievingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of reprieve
First recorded in 1300–50; perhaps conflation of Middle English repreven “to contradict,” variant of reproven “to rebuke,” apparently taken in literal sense “to prove again, test again,” and Middle English repried (past participle of reprien “to bring back”), from Old French reprit (past participle of reprendre “to take back”; see reprise, reprove,
Explanation
A reprieve is a break in or cancellation of a painful or otherwise lousy situation. If you're being tortured, a reprieve is a break from whatever's tormenting you. For some, a night at the opera is a night of punishing boredom during which the only reprieve is the intermission. For others, it's baseball that feels like torture. The seventh-inning stretch is the only reprieve from a night of endless waiting. Often, you'll hear reprieve used when a court or governor decides not to execute a prisoner. That prisoner is given a reprieve and will be allowed to live. He probably won't get a reprieve from prison, though, unless he's found innocent.
Vocabulary lists containing reprieve
300 Most Difficult "SAT" Words
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List 2
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The Constitution of the United States
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A solid 10-year Treasury note auction Wednesday offered a reprieve for stocks, but the effect is fading.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
Pike's lawyers, who filed a 226-page clemency petition, hoped for a last-minute reprieve of her execution, but it was rejected, while United Nations human rights experts had also called for the execution to be stopped.
From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026
Usually the bar is a rowdy reprieve filled with sweaty bodies and pounding bass lines, with Lo situated behind the DJ decks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 21, 2026
The world’s largest oil importer for months had relied on its own stockpiles of crude for nearly half of its daily consumption, providing a reprieve for oil markets.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026
Peace lay on Devon like a blessing, the summer’s peace, the reprieve, New Hampshire’s response to all the cogitation and deadness of winter.
From "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles
The decline is on the larger end among the reprieves for U.S. trading partners.
From Barron's ● Feb. 26, 2026
This could negatively impact Alcoa’s tariff reprieves on its Canadian aluminum.
From MarketWatch ● Jan. 8, 2026
In return, the companies get administration-backed reprieves from potential new U.S. tariffs for three years.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 19, 2025
The US Constitution says that a president has the "power to grant reprieves and pardons for offences against the United States, except in cases of impeachment".
From BBC ● May 27, 2025
Now at that time, so important were the proclamations and Privy Council matters, that every week there rode a post who carried naught but reprieves and sentences.
From The Men of the Moss-Hags Being a history of adventure taken from the papers of William Gordon of Earlstoun in Galloway by S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett
The DOE review reprieved nearly 2,000 clean-technology projects, totaling close to $24 billion in funding.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2026
Given not out on the field, Weatherald was also reprieved on review by TV umpire Chris Gaffaney, despite small movement on the Snicko technology.
From BBC ● Jan. 7, 2026
With Mbeumo reprieved by VAR on Sunday, he took his second chance with a jumping run-up just before he hit the ball, waiting for goalkeeper Dean Henderson to dive the wrong way.
From BBC ● Jan. 26, 2025
Beaumont was reprieved on 61 as Australia opted against reviewing a catch, with replays showing she had hit the ball on to her boot before being caught at short leg.
From BBC ● Jun. 23, 2023
When she discovered that she had nine months to go before the baby came, she felt like a reprieved criminal.
From "Go Set a Watchman: A Novel" by Harper Lee
While it was Rory Burns reprieving Warner at the Gabba, this time it was Jos Buttler inexplicably shelling Marnus Labuschagne.
From BBC ● Dec. 16, 2021
Just go and tell Kiddle and the rest, that, in consideration of her general good conduct, I purpose reprieving her.
From Ben Burton Born and Bred at Sea by Archibald Webb
He was intrusted with the power of appointment to offices, with a suspensory veto, and with the royal prerogative of reprieving or pardoning criminals.
From The Critical Period of American History by John Fiske
President Madero was telegraphed to, and immediately replied, reprieving Villa's sentence, and ordering him to be sent to Mexico City pending further official investigation.
From The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 21 The Recent Days (1910-1914) by Charles F. (Charles Francis) Horne
Cross-examining failed to get the statement from the woman that would justify my reprieving or pardoning him.
From The Daredevil by Maria Thompson Daviess
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
