reprieve
Americanverb (used with object)
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to delay the impending punishment or sentence of (a condemned person).
-
to relieve temporarily from any evil.
noun
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a respite from impending punishment, as from execution of a sentence of death.
-
a warrant authorizing this.
-
any respite or temporary relief.
- Synonyms:
- deferment, stay, postponement, delay
verb
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to postpone or remit the punishment of (a person, esp one condemned to death)
-
to give temporary relief to (a person or thing), esp from otherwise irrevocable harm
the government has reprieved the company with a huge loan
noun
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a postponement or remission of punishment, esp of a person condemned to death
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a warrant granting a postponement
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a temporary relief from pain or harm; respite
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the act of reprieving or the state of being reprieved
Related Words
See pardon.
Other Word Forms
- reprievable adjective
- repriever noun
- unreprieved adjective
Etymology
Origin of reprieve
First recorded in 1300–50; perhaps conflation of Middle English repreven “to contradict,” variant of reproven “to rebuke,” apparently taken in literal sense “to prove again, test again,” and Middle English repried (past participle of reprien “to bring back”), from Old French reprit (past participle of reprendre “to take back”; reprise, reprove,
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
First Minister John Swinney visited the Larbert factory last September to announce details of the furlough scheme, which offered a reprieve for 400 staff threatened with redundancy.
From BBC
A Russian oil tanker was set to deliver the first crude shipment to Cuba since January on Tuesday after Washington gave the crisis-hit island a reprieve from an effective fuel blockade.
From Barron's
Oil prices were seeing a bit of a reprieve this week from their stunning climb in March.
From MarketWatch
On Thursday he extended his reprieve for Iran’s energy sites again to April 6.
But a short reprieve only to return to uncertainty is not going to cut it.
From MarketWatch
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
