relieved definition | Dictionary.com

re⋅lieve

[ri-leev]

verb, -lieved, -liev⋅ing.

–verb (used with object)

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

2.	to free from anxiety, fear, pain, etc.

3.	to free from need, poverty, etc.

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

5.	to ease (a person) of any burden, wrong, or oppression, as by legal means.

6.	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.

7.	to make less tedious, unpleasant, or monotonous; break or vary the sameness of: curtains to relieve the drabness of the room.

8.	to bring into relief or prominence; heighten the effect of.

9.	to release (one on duty) by coming as or providing a substitute or replacement.

10.

Machinery.

a.	to free (a closed space, as a tank, boiler, etc.) of more than a desirable pressure or vacuum.

b.	to reduce (the pressure or vacuum in such a space) to a desirable level.

11.	Baseball. to replace (a pitcher).

–verb (used without object)

12.	Baseball. to act as a relief pitcher: He relieved in 52 games for the Pirates last season.

—Idiom

13.	to relieve oneself, to urinate or defecate.

Origin:
1300–50; ME releven < MF relever to raise < L relevāre to reduce the load of, lighten, equiv. to re- re- + levāre to raise, deriv. of levis light in weight

Related forms:

re⋅liev⋅a⋅ble, adjective

re⋅liev⋅ed⋅ly [ri-lee-vid-lee]

, adverb

Synonyms:
1. mitigate, assuage, allay, lighten, lessen, abate, diminish. See comfort. 1-4. aid, help, assist. 3. support, sustain. 4. succor.

Antonyms:
1. intensify.

Link To relieved

re·lieve (rĭ-lēv')

tr.v. re·lieved, re·liev·ing, re·lieves

To cause a lessening or alleviation of: relieved all his symptoms; relieved the tension.
To free from pain, anxiety, or distress.
To furnish assistance or aid to.
To rescue from siege.
To release (a person) from an obligation, restriction, or burden, as by law or legislation.
1. To free from a specified duty by providing or acting as a substitute.
2. Baseball To take over for (a relief pitcher).
To make less tedious, monotonous, or unpleasant: Only one small candle relieved the gloom.
To make prominent or effective by contrast; set off.
Informal To rob or deprive: Pickpockets relieved him of his money.

[Middle English releven, from Old French relever, from Latin relevāre : re-, re- + levāre, to raise; see leg^wh- in Indo-European roots.]
re·liev'a·ble adj.

Synonyms: These verbs mean to make something less severe or more bearable. To relieve is to make more endurable something causing discomfort or distress: "that misery which he strives in vain to relieve" (Henry David Thoreau).
Allay suggests at least temporary relief from what is burdensome or painful: "This music crept by me upon the waters,/Allaying both their fury and my passion/With its sweet air" (Shakespeare).
Alleviate connotes temporary lessening of distress without removal of its cause: "No arguments shall be wanting on my part that can alleviate so severe a misfortune" (Jane Austen).
To assuage is to soothe or make milder: assuaged his guilt by confessing to the crime.
Lighten signifies to make less heavy or oppressive: legislation that would lighten the taxpayer's burden.
Mitigate and palliate connote moderating the force or intensity of something that causes suffering: "I ... prayed to the Lord to mitigate a calamity" (John Galt). "Men turn to him in the hour of distress, as of all statesmen the most fitted to palliate it" (William E.H. Lecky).

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