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Relieve vs Discharge - What's the difference?

relieve | discharge |

As verbs the difference between relieve and discharge

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 discharge is to accomplish or complete, as an obligation.

As a noun discharge is

(uncountable) pus or exudate (other than blood) from a wound or orifice, usually due to infection or pathology.

relieve

English

Verb

(reliev)
  • 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.
  • This shall not relieve either Party of any obligations.
  • 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:
  • The henna should be deeply dyed to make / The skin relieved appear more fairly fair [...].
  • * 1927 , (Countee Cullen), From the Dark Tower :
  • The night whose sable breast relieves the stark / White stars is no less lovely being dark
  • (reflexive) To go to the toilet; to defecate or urinate.
  • Synonyms

    * (l)

    Derived terms

    * relieve oneself

    discharge

    English

    Verb

    (discharg)
  • To accomplish or complete, as an obligation.
  • * 1610 , , act 3 scene 1
  • O most dear mistress, / The sun will set before I shall discharge / What I must strive to do.
  • To free of a debt, claim, obligation, responsibility, accusation, etc.; to absolve; to acquit; to clear.
  • * Dryden
  • Discharged of business, void of strife.
  • * L'Estrange
  • In one man's fault discharge another man of his duty.
  • To send away (a creditor) satisfied by payment; to pay one's debt or obligation to.
  • * Shakespeare
  • If he had / The present money to discharge the Jew.
  • To set aside; to annul; to dismiss.
  • * Macaulay
  • The order for Daly's attendance was discharged .
  • To expel or let go.
  • * H. Spencer
  • Feeling in other cases discharges itself in indirect muscular actions.
  • To let fly, as a missile; to shoot.
  • * Shakespeare
  • They do discharge their shot of courtesy.
  • (electricity) To release (an accumulated charge).
  • To relieve of an office or employment; to send away from service; to dismiss.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Discharge the common sort / With pay and thanks.
  • * Milton
  • Grindal was discharged the government of his see.
  • # (medicine) To release (an inpatient) from hospital.
  • # (military) To release (a member of the armed forces) from service.
  • To release legally from confinement; to set at liberty.
  • to discharge a prisoner
  • To operate (any weapon that fires a projectile, such as a shotgun or sling).
  • * Knolles
  • The galleys also did oftentimes, out of their prows, discharge their great pieces against the city.
  • * 1918 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), Chapter IV
  • I ran forward, discharging my pistol into the creature's body in an effort to force it to relinquish its prey; but I might as profitably have shot at the sun.
  • To release (an auxiliary assumption) from the list of assumptions used in arguments, and return to the main argument.
  • To unload a ship or another means of transport.
  • To put forth, or remove, as a charge or burden; to take out, as that with which anything is loaded or filled.
  • to discharge a cargo
  • To give forth; to emit or send out.
  • A pipe discharges water.
  • To let fly; to give expression to; to utter.
  • He discharged a horrible oath.
  • (obsolete, Scotland) To prohibit; to forbid.
  • (Sir Walter Scott)

    Noun

    (wikipedia discharge)
  • (symptom) (uncountable ) pus or exudate (other than blood) from a wound or orifice, usually due to infection or pathology
  • the act of accomplishing (an obligation); performance
  • * 1610 , , act 2 scene 1
  • Whereof what's past is prologue, what to come / In yours and my discharge .
  • the act of expelling or letting go
  • (electricity) the act of releasing an accumulated charge
  • (medicine) the act of releasing an inpatient from hospital
  • (military) the act of releasing a member of the armed forces from service
  • (hydrology) the volume of water transported by a river in a certain amount of time, usually in units of m3/s (cubic meters per second)