Release vs. Relieve — What's the Difference?

To set free from confinement or bondage

To cause a lessening or alleviation of

To set free from physical restraint or binding; let go

To make less tedious, monotonous, or unpleasant

To cause or allow to move away or spread from a source or place of confinement

To free from pain, anxiety, or distress

To make available for use

To furnish assistance or aid to

To set free from obligations, commitments, or debt

To rescue from siege.

To relieve of care or suffering

To release (a person) from an obligation, restriction, or burden.

To issue for performance, sale, publication, or distribution

To free from a specified duty by providing or acting as a substitute.

To make known or available

(Baseball) To enter the game as a relief pitcher after (another pitcher).

(Law) To surrender (a right, claim, or title).

(Informal) To rob or deprive

Deliverance or liberation, as from confinement.

(Archaic) To make prominent or effective by contrast; set off.

Discharge from an obligation or commitment.

(transitive) To ease (a person, person's thoughts etc.) from mental distress; to stop (someone) feeling anxious or worried, to alleviate the distress of.

Relief from suffering or care.

(transitive) To ease (someone, a part of the body etc.) or give relief from physical pain or discomfort.

An unfastening or letting go, as of something caught or held fast.

(transitive) To alleviate (pain, distress, mental discomfort etc.).

(Sports) The action of throwing a ball or propelling a puck

(transitive) To provide comfort or assistance to (someone in need, especially in poverty).

(Linguistics) The movement of a vocal organ or organs so as to end the closure of a stop consonant.

(obsolete) To lift up; to raise again.

A device or catch for locking or releasing a mechanism.

To raise (someone) out of danger or from (a specified difficulty etc.).

The act or an instance of issuing something for publication, use, or distribution.

(legal) To free (someone) from debt or legal obligations; to give legal relief to.

Something thus issued

(transitive) To bring military help to (a besieged town); to lift the siege on.

The condition of being available, in use, or in publication

To release (someone) from or of a difficulty, unwanted task, responsibility etc.

The surrender of a right, title, or claim, especially to one against whom the right, title, or claim would be enforced or exercised.

To free (someone) from their post, task etc. by taking their place.

The document attesting to such surrender.

To make (something) stand out; to make prominent, bring into relief.

The event of setting (someone or something) free (e.g. hostages, slaves, prisoners, caged animals, hooked or stuck mechanisms).

To urinate or defecate.

(software) The distribution of an initial or new and upgraded version of a computer software product; the distribution can be either public or private.

To ease one's own desire to orgasm, often through masturbation to orgasm.

Anything recently released or made available (as for sale).

To lift up; to raise again, as one who has fallen; to cause to rise.

That which is released, untied or let go.

To cause to seem to rise; to put in relief; to give prominence or conspicuousness to; to set off by contrast.

(legal) The giving up of a claim, especially a debt.

To raise up something in; to introduce a contrast or variety into; to remove the monotony or sameness of.

Liberation from pain or suffering.

To raise or remove, as anything which depresses, weighs down, or crushes; to render less burdensome or afflicting; to alleviate; to abate; to mitigate; to lessen; as, to relieve pain; to relieve the wants of the poor.

(biochemistry) The process by which a chemical substance is set free.

To free, wholly or partly, from any burden, trial, evil, distress, or the like; to give ease, comfort, or consolation to; to give aid, help, or succor to; to support, strengthen, or deliver; as, to relieve a besieged town.

The act or manner of ending a sound.

To release from a post, station, or duty; to put another in place of, or to take the place of, in the bearing of any burden, or discharge of any duty.

In the block system, a printed card conveying information and instructions to be used at intermediate sidings without telegraphic stations.

To ease of any imposition, burden, wrong, or oppression, by judicial or legislative interposition, as by the removal of a grievance, by indemnification for losses, or the like; to right.

A device adapted to hold or release a device or mechanism as required.

Provide physical relief, as from pain;

A catch on a motor-starting rheostat, which automatically releases the rheostat arm and so stops the motor in case of a break in the field circuit.

Free someone temporarily from his or her obligations

The catch on an electromagnetic circuit breaker for a motor, triggered in the event of an overload.

Grant relief or an exemption from a rule or requirement to;

The lever or button on a camera that opens the shutter to allow a photograph to be taken

Lessen the intensity of or calm;

Orgasm.

Save from ruin, destruction, or harm

(music) A kind of bridge used in jazz music.

Relieve oneself of troubling information

To let go (of); to cease to hold or contain.

Alleviate or remove;

To make available to the public.

Provide relief for;

To free or liberate; to set free.

Free from a burden, evil, or distress

To discharge.

Take by stealing;

(telephone) of a call To hang up.

Grant exemption or release to;

(legal) To let go, as a legal claim; to discharge or relinquish a right to, as lands or tenements, by conveying to another who has some right or estate in possession, as when the person in remainder releases his right to the tenant in possession; to quit.

To loosen; to relax; to remove the obligation of.

(soccer) To set up; to provide with a goal-scoring opportunity

(biochemistry) To set free a chemical substance.

(intransitive) to come out; be out.

(transitive) To lease again; to grant a new lease of; to let back.

To lease again; to grant a new lease of; to let back.

To let loose again; to set free from restraint, confinement, or servitude; to give liberty to, or to set at liberty; to let go.

To relieve from something that confines, burdens, or oppresses, as from pain, trouble, obligation, penalty.

To let go, as a legal claim; to discharge or relinquish a right to, as lands or tenements, by conveying to another who has some right or estate in possession, as when the person in remainder releases his right to the tenant in possession; to quit.

To loosen; to relax; to remove the obligation of; as, to release an ordinance.

The act of letting loose or freeing, or the state of being let loose or freed; liberation or discharge from restraint of any kind, as from confinement or bondage.

Relief from care, pain, or any burden.

Discharge from obligation or responsibility, as from debt, penalty, or claim of any kind; acquittance.

A giving up or relinquishment of some right or claim; a conveyance of a man's right in lands or tenements to another who has some estate in possession; a quitclaim.

The act of opening the exhaust port to allow the steam to escape.

A device adapted to hold or release a device or mechanism as required;

The act or manner of ending a sound.

In the block-signaling system, a printed card conveying information and instructions to be used at intermediate sidings without telegraphic stations.

Merchandise issued for sale or public showing (especially a record or film);

The act of liberating someone or something

A process that liberates or discharges something;

An announcement distributed to members of the press in order to supplement or replace an oral presentation

The termination of someone's employment (leaving them free to depart)

Euphemistic expressions for death;

A legal document evidencing the discharge of a debt or obligation

Activity that releases or expresses creative energy or emotion;

The act of allowing a fluid to escape

A formal written statement of relinquishment

(music) the act or manner of terminating a musical phrase or tone

Release, as from one's grip;

Grant freedom to; free from confinement

Let (something) fall or spill a container;

Eliminate (substances) from the body

Prepare and issue for public distribution or sale;

Generate and separate from cells or bodily fluids;

Make (information) available publication;

Part with a possession or right;

Make (assets) available;