Relieve, alleviate, lighten, assuage, mitigate, allay mean to make something less grievous. Relieve implies a lifting of enough of a burden to make it tolerable. See examples of relieve used in a sentence.
Definition of relieve verb in oxford advanced american dictionary. Relieve, allay, alleviate, assuage, lighten2, mitigate, palliate these verbs mean to make something less severe or more bearable. To relieve is to make more endurable something causing.
Feb 21, 2026relieve (third-person singular simple present relieves, present participle relieving, simple past and past participle relieved) (transitive) to ease (a person, person's thoughts etc.) from mental. To ease, lessen, or make less unpleasant:[~ + object] aspirin may relieve the pain. To free from anxiety, fear, pain, etc.:[~ + object] we were relieved by the good news.
"a good night's sleep can relieve fatigue and restore energy." If you relieve someone, you take their place and continue to do the job or duty that they have been doing. At seven o'clock the night nurse came in to relieve her.
To relieve means to alleviate, reduce or remove pain, distress, pressure, or any discomforting condition.