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Synonyms

relieve

American

[ri-leev] / rɪˈliv /

verb (used with object)

to ease or alleviate (pain, distress, anxiety, need, etc.).

Synonyms:

diminish, abate, lessen, lighten, allay, assuage, mitigate

Antonyms:

intensify
to free from anxiety, fear, pain, etc.
to free from need, poverty, etc.

Synonyms:

sustain, support
to bring effective aid to (a besieged town, military position, etc.).

Synonyms:

succor, assist, help, aid
to ease (a person) of any burden, wrong, or oppression, as by legal means.
to reduce (a pressure, load, weight, etc., on a device or object under stress).

to relieve the steam pressure; to relieve the stress on the supporting walls.
to make less tedious, unpleasant, or monotonous; break or vary the sameness of.

curtains to relieve the drabness of the room.
to bring into relief or prominence; heighten the effect of.
to release (one on duty) by coming as or providing a substitute or replacement.
Machinery.
1. to free (a closed space, as a tank, boiler, etc.) of more than a desirable pressure or vacuum.
2. to reduce (the pressure or vacuum in such a space) to a desirable level.
Baseball. to replace (a pitcher).

verb (used without object)

Baseball. to act as a relief pitcher.

He relieved in 52 games for the Pirates last season.

idioms

to relieve oneself, to urinate or defecate.

relieve British

/ rɪˈliːv /

verb

to bring alleviation of (pain, distress, etc) to (someone)
to bring aid or assistance to (someone in need, a disaster area, etc)
to take over the duties or watch of (someone)
to bring aid or a relieving force to (a besieged town, city, etc)
to free (someone) from an obligation
to make (something) less unpleasant, arduous, or monotonous
to bring into relief or prominence, as by contrast
informal (foll by of) to take from

the thief relieved him of his watch
to urinate or defecate

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Synonym Usage

See comfort.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future

Etymology

Origin of relieve

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English releven from Middle French relever “to raise,” from Latin relevāre “to reduce the load of, lighten,” equivalent to re- “again, again and again”+ levāre “to raise,” derivative of levis “light in weight”; see re-

Explanation

To relieve is to ease a burden or take over for someone. An aspirin can relieve a headache, and a substitute can relieve the teacher who fell asleep on her desk after lunch. Relieve comes from the Latin word relevare meaning "to help" or "make light again." An ice pack might relieve a pain in your elbow, but you can also be relieved of your duties if you get fired (or taken out to lunch). A thief might even relieve you of your wallet. Like thief, relieve is the rare word that actually follows the "i" before "e" rule ("i" before "e" except after "c" or when sounded as "a" as in "neighbor" and "weigh"). Aren't you relieved?

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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:

relieve relieves relieved relieving

The robots will sell for $30,000 apiece, and they will relieve us from all manner of drudgery.

From Slate ● Oct. 19, 2026

Then he disappeared into the nearby stand of trees and stooped down, pretending to relieve himself.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

Although the device has demonstrated promising results in early testing, its ability to relieve chronic pain or improve movement disorders in human patients has not yet been established.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 11, 2026

The scheme was brought in to relieve pressure on prisons across England and Wales which were dangerously close to reaching full capacity.

From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026

They were supposed to relieve another patrol, but who knew where anything was in this rat’s nest of a sector?

From "The Reader" by Traci Chee

In the opening scenes, Mr. Turturro’s Harry relieves a rich Wall Street type of his wallet only to discover it contains, along with lots of useless platinum credit cards, exactly zero cash.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026

"Looking back and revisiting something that we already know about kind of relieves that anxiety, or it kind of just distracts us from all of the current changes that are happening."

From Barron's ● Apr. 8, 2026

Homan suggested ICE agents would cover entry and exit points so "that relieves that TSA officer to go to screening and to reduce those lines".

From BBC ● Mar. 22, 2026

“Writing it all down relieves that burden 100%,” said Francis, whose firm has created a downloadable booklet to help the process.

From MarketWatch ● Feb. 10, 2026

She relieves herself in the bedpan at the foot of Madame Manec’s bed.

From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

"It's great," one woman who came to watch told AFP in the town dotted with Chinese as well as Korean shops and restaurants, where residents were relieved the bridge had finally open.

From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026

When a county judge put the brakes on what would be the largest data center in California, ruling the whole project needed extensive environmental review, Kristian Salgado was relieved.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 14, 2026

Lawyers for both men told Canadian media that their clients had long maintained their innocence and were relieved to be able to move forward with their lives.

From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026

Woods said in an interview that she was relieved when she saw that the Education Department had discharged loans for the borrowers who enrolled in Ashford between March 1, 2009 and April 30, 2020.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026

He looked so relieved to be unburdening himself.

From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse

Rather than focusing only on relieving pain, this approach changes the mechanics of walking to reduce pressure on vulnerable parts of the knee.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 11, 2026

“Older debtors are hopeful this passes and it’s a tiny step towards relieving their burden.”

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 2, 2026

There’s no real harm in relieving that stress by laughing at the antics of President Camacho.

From Salon ● Sep. 6, 2026

Signs of de-escalation with Iran have also helped extend the rally in recent sessions, with retreating oil prices relieving inflationary pressures and sparking gains in energy-hungry industrial shares.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026

We had been relieving ourselves outside, but with the snowstorm in full rage, we had no choice but to sit on a bucket in the jurta.

From "Between Shades of Gray" by Ruta Sepetys

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023