verb [VN]
1 to remove or reduce an unpleasant feeling or pain:
to relieve the symptoms of a cold * to relieve anxiety / guilt / stress * Being able to tell the truth at last seemed to relieve her.
2 to make a problem less serious:
efforts to relieve famine in Africa * to relieve traffic congestion / unemployment
3 to make sth less boring, especially by introducing sth different:
We played cards to relieve the boredom of the long wait. * The black and white pattern is relieved by tiny coloured flowers.
4 to replace sb who is on duty:
to relieve a driver / sentry * You'll be relieved at six o'clock.
5 to free a town, etc. from an enemy army that has surrounded it
6 ~ yourself a polite way of referring to going to the toilet:
I had to relieve myself behind a bush.
PHRASALVERBS
relieve sb of sth
1 to help sb by taking sth heavy or difficult from them:
Let me relieve you of some of your bags. * The new secretary will relieve us of some of the paperwork.
2 (informal, ironic) to steal sth from sb:
A boy with a knife relieved him of his wallet.
3 to dismiss sb from a job, position, etc:
General Beale was relieved of his command.
Rate this entry
About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
This entry for relieve is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Does relieve appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — relieve appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.
