Dictionary
Thesaurus
Reference
Translate
Web
Related Searches
on Ask.com
Synonyms
Nearby Entries
ease - 8 dictionary results

ease

  [eez] noun, verb, eased, eas⋅ing.
Use 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.
Cite This Source Link To ease
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.
Cite This Source

Ease

Ease\, n. [OE. ese, eise, F. aise; akin to Pr. ais, aise, OIt. asio, It. agio; of uncertain origin; cf. L. ansa handle, occasion, opportunity. Cf. Agio, Disease.]

1. Satisfaction; pleasure; hence, accommodation; entertainment. [Obs.]

They him besought Of harbor and or ease as for hire penny. --Chaucer.

2. Freedom from anything that pains or troubles; as: (a) Relief from labor or effort; rest; quiet; relaxation; as, ease of body.

Usefulness comes by labor, wit by ease. --Herbert.

Give yourself ease from the fatigue of watching. --Swift. (b) Freedom from care, solicitude, or anything that annoys or disquiets; tranquillity; peace; comfort; security; as, ease of mind.

Among these nations shalt thou find no ease. --Deut. xxviii. 65.

Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. --Luke xii. 19. (c) Freedom from constraint, formality, difficulty, embarrassment, etc.; facility; liberty; naturalness; -- said of manner, style, etc.; as, ease of style, of behavior, of address.

True ease in writing comes from art, not chance. --Pope.

Whate'er he did was done with so much ease, In him alone 't was natural to please. --Dryden.

At ease, free from pain, trouble, or anxiety. "His soul shall dwell at ease." --Ps. xxv. 12.

Chapel of ease. See under Chapel.

Ill at ease, not at ease, disquieted; suffering; anxious.

To stand at ease (Mil.), to stand in a comfortable attitude in one's place in the ranks.

With ease, easily; without much effort.

Syn: Rest; quiet; repose; comfortableness; tranquility; facility; easiness; readiness.

Ease

Ease\, v. t. & i. [imp. & p. p. Eased; p. pr. & vb. n. Easing.] [OE. esen, eisen, OF. aisier. See Ease, n.]

1. To free from anything that pains, disquiets, or oppresses; to relieve from toil or care; to give rest, repose, or tranquility to; -- often with of; as, to ease of pain; ease the body or mind.

Eased [from] the putting off These troublesome disguises which we wear. --Milton.

Sing, and I 'll ease thy shoulders of thy load. --Dryden.

2. To render less painful or oppressive; to mitigate; to alleviate.

My couch shall ease my complaint. --Job vii. 13.

3. To release from pressure or restraint; to move gently; to lift slightly; to shift a little; as, to ease a bar or nut in machinery.

4. To entertain; to furnish with accommodations. [Obs.] --Chaucer.

To ease off, To ease away (Naut.), to slacken a rope gradually.

To ease a ship (Naut.), to put the helm hard, or regulate the sail, to prevent pitching when closehauled.

To ease the helm (Naut.), to put the helm more nearly amidships, to lessen the effect on the ship, or the strain on the wheel rope. --Ham. Nav. Encyc.

Syn: To relieve; disburden; quiet; calm; tranquilize; assuage; alleviate; allay; mitigate; appease; pacify.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
Cite This Source
Language Translation for : ease
Spanish: alivio, bienestar,
German: die Bequemlichkeit,
Japanese: 安楽
More Translations »

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
Cite This Source

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.
Cite This Source

Ease
General purpose parallel programming language, combining the process constructs of CSP and the distributed data structures of Linda. "Programming with Ease: Semiotic Definition of the Language", S.E. Zenith, Yale U TR-809, Jul 1990.

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
Cite This Source

ease

In addition to the idioms beginning with ease, also see at ease; ill at ease. Also see under easily; easy.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
Cite This Source
Search another word or see ease on Thesaurus | Reference