Relieve vs Abate - What's the difference?
relieve | abate | Related terms |
To ease (a person, person's thoughts etc.) from mental distress; to stop (someone) feeling anxious or worried, to alleviate the distress of.
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5
, passage=Then we relapsed into a discomfited silence, and wished we were anywhere else. But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud, and with such a hearty enjoyment that instead of getting angry and more mortified we began to laugh ourselves, and instantly felt better.}}
To ease (someone, a part of the body etc.) or give relief from physical pain or discomfort.
To alleviate (pain, distress, mental discomfort etc.).
To provide comfort or assistance to (someone in need, especially in poverty).
(obsolete) To lift up; to raise again.
(legal) To free (someone) from debt or legal obligations; to give legal relief to.
To bring military help to (a besieged town); to lift the seige on.
To release (someone) from or of a difficulty, unwanted task, responsibility etc.
(military, job) To free (someone) from their post, task etc. by taking their place.
* 1819 , (Lord Byron), , III.76:
* 1927 , (Countee Cullen), From the Dark Tower :
(reflexive) To go to the toilet; to defecate or urinate.
(transitive, obsolete, outside, legal) To put an end to; to cause to cease.
To become null and void.
(legal) To nullify; make void.
(obsolete) To humble; to lower in status; to bring someone down physically or mentally.
*
(obsolete) To be humbled; to be brought down physically or mentally.
(obsolete) To curtail; to deprive.
* 1605 , , King Lear , II.ii:
To reduce in amount, size, or value.
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To decrease in size, value, or amount.
To moderate; to lessen in force, intensity, to subside.
* 1597 , , [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/575 Essays or Counsels, Civil and Morall] :
* 1855 , , History of England from the Accession of James II, Part 3 , [http://books.google.com/books?id=MN5CNdgbSTYC&pg=PA267 page 267]:
To decrease in intensity or force; to subside.
* :
To deduct or omit.
* 1845 , , The Church History of Britain , Volume 3, [http://books.google.com/books?id=OfefAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA100 page 100]:
To bar or except.
*
To cut away or hammer down, in such a way as to leave a figure in relief, as a sculpture, or in metalwork.
(obsolete) To dull the edge or point of; to blunt.
(archaic) To destroy, or level to the ground.
* 1542 , , The Union of the Noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre and York :
(legal) To enter a tenement without permission after the owner has died and before the heir takes possession.
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As verbs the difference between relieve and abate
is that relieve is to ease (a person, person's thoughts etc.) from mental distress; to stop (someone) feeling anxious or worried, to alleviate the distress of while abate is to put an end to; to cause to cease.As a noun abate is
abatement.relieve
English
Verb
(reliev)- This shall not relieve either Party of any obligations.
- The henna should be deeply dyed to make / The skin relieved appear more fairly fair [...].
- The night whose sable breast relieves the stark / White stars is no less lovely being dark
Synonyms
* (l)Derived terms
* relieve oneselfExternal links
* * ----abate
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) abaten, from (etyl) . Cognate to modern French abattre .Verb
(abat)- to abate a nuisance
- The writ has abated .
- to abate a writ
- The hyer that they were in this present lyf, the moore shulle they be abated and defouled in helle.
- Order restrictions and prohibitions to abate an emergency situation.
- She hath abated me of half my train.
- Legacies are liable to be abated entirely or in proportion, upon a deficiency of assets.
- His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated .
- Not that they feel it so, but only to abate the edge of envy.
- The fury of Glengarry rapidly abated .
- We will abate this price from the total.
- Allowing nine thousand parishes (abating the odd hundreds) in England and Wales
- Abating his brutality, he was a very good master.
- The kynge of Scottes planted his siege before the castell of Norham, and sore abated the walls.