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at ease

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ease

  [eez] noun, verb, eased, eas⋅ing.
Use at ease in a Sentence
–noun
1. freedom from labor, pain, or physical annoyance; tranquil rest; comfort: to enjoy one's ease.
2. freedom from concern, anxiety, or solicitude; a quiet state of mind: to be at ease about one's health.
3. freedom from difficulty or great effort; facility: It can be done with ease.
4. freedom from financial need; plenty: a life of ease on a moderate income.
5. freedom from stiffness, constraint, or formality; unaffectedness: ease of manner; the ease and elegance of her poetry.
–verb (used with object)
6. to free from anxiety or care: to ease one's mind.
7. to mitigate, lighten, or lessen: to ease pain.
8. to release from pressure, tension, or the like.
9. to move or shift with great care: to ease a car into a narrow parking space.
10. to render less difficult; facilitate: I'll help if it will ease your job.
11. to provide (an architectural member) with an easement.
12. Shipbuilding. to trim (a timber of a wooden hull) so as to fair its surface into the desired form of the hull.
13. Nautical.
a. to bring (the helm or rudder of a vessel) slowly amidships.
b. to bring the head of (a vessel) into the wind.
c. to slacken or lessen the hold upon (a rope).
d. to lessen the hold of (the brake of a windlass).
–verb (used without object)
14. to abate in severity, pressure, tension, etc. (often fol. by off or up).
15. to become less painful, burdensome, etc.
16. to move, shift, or be moved or be shifted with great care.
—Verb phrase
17. ease out, to remove from a position of authority, a job, or the like, esp. by methods intended to be tactful: He was eased out as division head to make way for the boss's nephew.
—Idiom
18. at ease. Military. a position of rest in which soldiers may relax but may not leave their places or talk.
Origin:
1175–1225; (n.) ME ese, eise < AF ese, OF aise, eise comfort, convenience < VL *adjace(m), acc. of *adjacēs vicinity (cf. ML in aiace in (the) vicinity), the regular outcome of L adjacēns adjacent, taken in VL as a n. of the type nūbēs, acc. nūbem cloud; (v.) ME esen < AF e(i)ser, OF aisier, deriv. of the n.

Synonyms:
1. repose, contentment, effortlessness. Ease, comfort refer to a sense of relaxation or of well-being. Ease implies a relaxed condition with an absence of effort or pressure: a life of ease. Comfort suggests a sense of well-being, along with ease, which produces a quiet happiness and contentment: comfort in one's old age. 2. tranquillity, serenity, calmness, peace. 5. naturalness, informality. 6. comfort, relieve, disburden; tranquilize, soothe. 7. alleviate, assuage, allay, abate, reduce.

Antonyms:
1. discomfort, effort. 2. disturbance. 5. stiffness, formality, tenseness.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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ease   (ēz)   
n.  

  1. The condition of being comfortable or relieved.

    1. Freedom from pain, worry, or agitation: Her mind was at ease knowing that the children were safe.

    2. Freedom from constraint or embarrassment; naturalness.

    3. Freedom from difficulty, hardship, or effort: rose through the ranks with apparent ease.

    4. Readiness or dexterity in performance; facility: a pianist who played the sonata with ease.

    1. Freedom from difficulty, hardship, or effort: rose through the ranks with apparent ease.

    2. Readiness or dexterity in performance; facility: a pianist who played the sonata with ease.

  4. Freedom from financial difficulty; affluence: a life of luxury and ease.

  5. A state of rest, relaxation, or leisure: He took his ease by the pond.

v.   eased, eas·ing, eas·es

v.   tr.

  1. To free from pain, worry, or agitation: eased his conscience by returning the stolen money.

    1. To lessen the discomfort or pain of: shifted position to ease her back.

    2. To alleviate; assuage: prescribed a drug to ease the pain.

  3. To give respite from: eased the staff's burden by hiring more people.

  4. To slacken the strain, pressure, or tension of; loosen: ease off a cable.

  5. To reduce the difficulty or trouble of: eased the entrance requirements.

  6. To move or maneuver slowly and carefully: eased the car into a narrow space; eased the director out of office.

v.   intr.

  1. To lessen, as in discomfort, pressure, or stress: pain that never eased.

  2. To move or proceed with little effort: eased through life doing as little as possible.


[Middle English ese, from Old French aise, elbowroom, physical comfort, from Vulgar Latin *asium.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

ease 
c.1225, from O.Fr. aise "comfort, pleasure," of unknown origin, despite attempts to link it to various L. verbs. The earliest senses in Fr. appear to be 1. "elbow-room" (from an 11th century Hebrew-French glossary) and 2. "opportunity." This led Sophus Bugge to suggest an origin in V.L. asa, a shortened form of L. ansa "handle," which could be used in the figurative sense of "opportunity, occasion," as well as being a possible synonym for "elbow," since L. ansatus "furnished with handles" also was used to mean "having the arms akimbo." OED editors report this theory, and write, "This is not very satisfactory, but it does not appear that any equally plausible alternative has yet been proposed." The verb meaning "to give ease" is from 1340; the sense of "to relax one's efforts" is from 1863.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: ease
Pronunciation: 'Ez
Function: verb
Inflected Forms: eased; eas·ing
transitive senses
1 : to freefrom something that pains, disquiets, or burdens <eased and comforted the sick>
2 : to take away or lessen : ALLEVIATE ease the pain> ease intransitive senses
: to give freedomor relief (as from pain or discomfort) eases and relaxes>
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Idioms & Phrases

at ease

  1. Also, at one's ease. Comfortable, relaxed, unembarrassed, as in I always feel at ease in my grandmother's house. The related idiom put at ease means "make comfortable, reassure," as in I was worried that the letter would not arrive in time, but the postmaster put me at ease. [1300s] For the antonym, see ill at ease.

  2. In a relaxed position in military ranks. The phrase is often used as a command for troops standing at attention to relax, as in At ease, squadron. The command stand at ease is slightly different. A British military dictionary of 1802 described it as standing with the right foot drawn back about six inches and one's weight put on it. An American version is to stand with one's feet slightly apart and the hands clasped behind one's back.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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