Webster's English Dictionary

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relief

re.lief \ri-'le-f\ n [ME, fr. MF, fr. OF, fr. relever] [F] 1: a payment 
   made by a feudal tenant to his lord upon succeeding to an inhe rited estate 
   2a: removal or lightening of something oppressive, painful, or distressing  
   2b: aid in the form of money or necessities for the indigent, aged, or hand 
   icapped 2c: military assistance in or rescue from a position of extreme 
   difficulty  or encirclement 2d: means of breaking or avoiding monotony or 
   boredom : DIVERSION  3: release from a post or from the performance of duty 
    4: one that relieves another from duty by taking his place  5: legal 
   remedy or redress  6a: a mode of sculpture in which forms and figures are 
   distinguished from a  surrounding plane surface 6b: sculpture or a 
   sculptural form executed in this mode  6c: projecting detail, ornament, or 
   figures  7a: the suggestion in pictorial art of spatial dimensions and 
   relations  7b: sharpness of outline due to contrast  8: the elevations or 
   inequalities of a land surface