relieve

Relieve is a verb with senses centered on reducing distress, removing a burden, or replacing someone in a duty. In medical and everyday language, it means to lessen pain, symptoms, or suffering: medications relieve pain; rest can relieve fatigue; activities can relieve anxiety.

Relieve can also describe removing a burden or obligation from someone, for example: to relieve someone of their duties; to be relieved of a task. The common construction is relieve someone of something; in older or British usage, relieve from is also heard, but less preferred in modern usage.

Additionally, relieve is used to denote replacing a person on duty, such as a guard or worker: the night shift was relieved by a fresh crew. In passive form, be relieved of something denotes being freed from it, as in “she was relieved of her responsibilities.”

Etymology: relieve comes from Old French relever, from Latin relevare, meaning to lift up or ease. Related terms include relief, alleviate, ease, and remove.