comfort

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To soothe in time of affliction or distress.
2. v. To ease physically; relieve.
3. n. A condition or feeling of pleasurable ease, well-being, and contentment.
4. n. Solace in time of grief or fear.
5. n. Help; assistance: gave comfort to the enemy.
6. n. One that brings or provides comfort.
7. n. The capacity to give physical ease and well-being: enjoying the comfort of my favorite chair.
8. n. Chiefly Southern & Lower Northern U.S. A quilted bedcover; a comforter.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To give or add strength to; strengthen; fortify; invigorate; corroborate.
2. To soothe when in grief or trouble; bring solace or consolation to; console; cheer; solace.
3. To relieve, assist, harbor, or encourage: in law, used especially of the conduct of an accessory to a crime after the fact. Synonyms To revive, refresh, inspirit, gladden, animate.
4. n. Strength; support; assistance; countenance; encouragement: now only a legal use: as, an accessory affords aid or comfort to a felon.
5. n. Relief in affliction, sorrow, or trouble of any kind; support; solace; consolation: as, to bring comfort to the afflicted.
6. n. A state of tranquil or moderate enjoyment, resulting from the satisfaction of bodily wants and freedom from care or anxiety; a feeling or state of well-being, satisfaction, or content.
7. n. That which gives or produces the feeling of welfare and satisfaction; that which furnishes moderate enjoyment or content.
8. n. Same as comfortable.
9. n. Synonyms Comfort, Consolation, Solace, relief, succor, ease, help. Comfort has a range of meaning not shared by the others, approaching that of pleasure, but of the quiet, durable, satisfying, heart-felt sort, meeting the needs most felt; as contrasted with consolation, it ordinarily applies to smaller or less known griefs, and is more positive and tender, and less formal. As contrasted with solace, comfort and consolation may or may not proceed from a person, while solace is got from things. Comfort may be merely physical; consolation and solace are spiritual.

Wiktionary

1. n. Contentment, ease.
2. n. A consolation; something relieving suffering or worry.
3. n. A cause of relief or satisfaction.
4. v. transitive : To provide comfort to or relieve suffering.
5. v. To make the physical circumstances comfortable.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. obsolete To make strong; to invigorate; to fortify; to corroborate.
2. v. obsolete To assist or help; to aid.
3. v. To impart strength and hope to; to encourage; to relieve; to console; to cheer.
4. n. Obs. except in the phrase “aid and comfort.” See 5 below. Assistance; relief; support.
5. n. Encouragement; solace; consolation in trouble; also, that which affords consolation.
6. n. A state of quiet enjoyment; freedom from pain, want, or anxiety; also, whatever contributes to such a condition.
7. n. United States A wadded bedquilt; a comfortable.
8. n. (Law) Unlawful support, countenance, or encouragement.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a feeling of freedom from worry or disappointment
2. n. the act of consoling; giving relief in affliction
3. v. lessen pain or discomfort; alleviate.
4. n. a freedom from financial difficulty that promotes a comfortable state
5. n. assistance, such as that provided to an enemy or to a known criminal
6. n. satisfaction or physical well-being provided by a person or thing
7. v. give moral or emotional strength to
8. n. a state of being relaxed and feeling no pain
9. n. bedding made of two layers of cloth filled with stuffing and stitched together