Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To set free from confinement, restraint, or bondage: released the prisoners.
- v. To free from something that binds, fastens, or holds back; let go: released the balloons; released a flood of questions.
- v. To dismiss, as from a job.
- v. To relieve of debt or obligation.
- v. To relieve of care and suffering.
- v. To issue for performance, sale, publication, or distribution.
- v. To make known or available.
- v. To relinquish (a right or claim).
- n. A deliverance or liberation, as from confinement, restraint, or suffering.
- n. An authoritative discharge, as from an obligation or from prison.
- n. An unfastening or letting go of something caught or held fast.
- n. A device or catch for locking or releasing a mechanism.
- n. The act or an instance of issuing something for publication, use, or distribution.
- n. Something thus released: a new release of a software program.
- n. The condition of being available, in use, or in publication: a movie in wide release.
- n. Law Relinquishment to another of a right, title, or claim.
- n. Law The document authorizing such relinquishment.
- n. Linguistics The movement of a vocal organ or organs so as to end the closure of a stop consonant.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To let loose; set free from restraint or confmement; liberate, as from prison, confinement, or servitude.
- To free from pain, care, trouble, grief, or any other evil.
- To free from obligation or penalty: as, to release one from debt, or from a promise or covenant.
- To forgive.
- To quit; let go, as a legal claim; remit; surrender or relinquish: as, to release a debt, or to release a right to lands or tenements by conveying to another already having some right or estate in possession. Thus, a remainder-man releases his right to the tenant in possession; one coparcener releases his right to the other; or the mortgagee releases to the mortgager or owner of the equity of redemption.
- To relax.
- To let slip; let go; give up.
- To take out of pawn. Nabbes, The Bride (4 to, 1640), sig. F. iv. Synonyms To loose, deliver.
- n. Liberation or discharge from restraint of any kind, as from confinement or bondage.
- n. Liberation from care, pain, or any burden.
- n. Discharge from obligation or responsibility, as from debt, tax, penalty, or claim of any kind; acquittance.
- n. In law, a surrender of a right; a remission of a claim in such form as to estop the grantor from asserting it. again. More specifically— An instrument by which a creditor or lienor discharges the debt or lien, or frees a particular person or property therefrom, irrespective of whether payment or satisfaction has actually been made. Hence usually it implies a sealed instrument. See
receipt . - n. In a steam-engine, the opening of the exhaust-port before the stroke is finished, to lessen the back-pressure.
- n. In archery, the act of letting go the bowstring in shooting; the mode of performing this act, which differs among different peoples.
- n. =Syn. 1–3. Deliverance, excuse, exemption, exoneration, absolution, clearance. See the verb.
- To lease again or anew.
- n. See combination button.
Wiktionary
- n. the event of setting (someone or something) free (e.g. hostages, slaves, prisoners, caged animals, hooked or stuck mechanisms)
- n. software The distribution of an initial or new and upgraded version of a computer software product; the distribution can be both public or private.
- n. Anything recently released or made available (as for sale).
- n. That which is released, untied or let go.
- v. To lease again; to grant a new lease of; to let back.
- v. To let go (of); to cease to hold or contain.
- v. To make available to the public.
- v. To free or liberate; to set free.
- v. To discharge.
- v. telephony (of a call) To hang up.
- v. soccer To set up; to provide with a goal-scoring opportunity
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To lease again; to grant a new lease of; to let back.
- v. To let loose again; to set free from restraint, confinement, or servitude; to give liberty to, or to set at liberty; to let go.
- v. To relieve from something that confines, burdens, or oppresses, as from pain, trouble, obligation, penalty.
- v. (Law) 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.
- v. obsolete To loosen; to relax; to remove the obligation of.
- n. 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.
- n. Relief from care, pain, or any burden.
- n. Discharge from obligation or responsibility, as from debt, penalty, or claim of any kind; acquittance.
- n. (Law) 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.
- n. (Steam Engine) The act of opening the exhaust port to allow the steam to escape.
- n. (Mach.), (Elec.) A device adapted to hold or release a device or mechanism as required 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; also, the catch on an electromagnetic circuit breaker for a motor, which acts in case of an overload.
- n. (Phon.) The act or manner of ending a sound.
- n. (Railroads) In the block-signaling system, a printed card conveying information and instructions to be used at intermediate sidings without telegraphic stations.
WordNet 3.0
- v. make (assets) available
- n. a process that liberates or discharges something
- v. grant freedom to; free from confinement
- n. the act of liberating someone or something
- n. the act of allowing a fluid to escape
- n. activity that frees or expresses creative energy or emotion
- n. merchandise issued for sale or public showing (especially a record or film)
- v. eliminate (a substance)
- v. part with a possession or right
- v. make (information) available for publication
- n. euphemistic expressions for death
- n. a formal written statement of relinquishment
- n. a legal document evidencing the discharge of a debt or obligation
- v. prepare and issue for public distribution or sale
- n. an announcement distributed to members of the press in order to supplement or replace an oral presentation
- n. the termination of someone's employment (leaving them free to depart)
- v. generate and separate from cells or bodily fluids
- v. release (gas or energy) as a result of a chemical reaction or physical decomposition
- n. (music) the act or manner of terminating a musical phrase or tone
- v. release, as from one's grip
- n. a device that when pressed will release part of a mechanism
- v. let (something) fall or spill from a container
Etymologies
- From Old French relaisser (variant of relascher). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English relesen, from Old French relaissier, alteration of relacher, from Latin relaxāre; see relax. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Much of the American public — once Paine's base of support — spurned him after his release from French prison, when he publicly blamed George Washington for not having helped secure his release.”
“The record for the first 8 days in release is held by The Dark Knight with $261,847,503.”
“But if Sharpe was really so enraged, why did the label release the album?”
“He says judges have a great deal of discretion to decide what the term release really means.”
“The 90s saw the label release records that are surely to be found in the collections of many of today's alternative fans - albums by Shellac, the underrated”
“Normally a pre-release is code for "ugly and a bit broken", but ...”
“Release Candidate - Release Candidate (RC) The term release candidate (RC) refers to a software version with the potential to be a final product, ready to release to the public for final testing.”
“Release Candidate - Release Candidate (RC) The term release candidate (RC) refers to a software version with the potential to be a final product, ready to be released to the public for final testing.”
“The term release candidate refers to a version with potential to be a final product, ready to release unless fatal bugs emerge.”
“In this stage of product stabilization (read QA cycle), all product features have been designed, coded and tested through one or more Alpha cycles with no known Corporation often uses the term release candidate.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘release’.
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Linda(G4)
Accurate, address, afford, alert, analyze, ancestor, annual, apparent, arena, arrest, ascend, assist and 126 more...
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EU Buzz - ALL words and expressions
A combined list of
1. EU Buzz - single words
2. EU Buzz - collocations
3. EU Buzz - the 100 most active
collocation constituentsabsorption capacity, absorption rate, acceding country, accession candidate, accession countries, accession country, accession criteria, accession cycle, accession negotia..., accession partner..., accession priorities, accession treaty and 2650 more...
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EN - academic vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3119 more...
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Do That Again! ~~ "Re-verbs"
List of verbs that begin with re-, meaning to repeat a specific action or process - reappraise, for example.
I'm also looking for words like repeat, replenish and rescind whose roots d...repeat, rescind, reappraise, refinish, restripe, reapply, resupply, refurbish, reposition, reoffend, redistribute, recoat and 202 more...
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Film
jidaigeki, samurai, Kurosawa, action, comedy, drama, Bergman, Buñuel, surreal, rotoscope, melodrama, Cinerama and 333 more...
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RELI - words with Biblical connotations
Words in the Bible evoking biblical stories or with special spiritual meaning. Proper names have been reduced to the minimum.
ark, judgement, holy, saint, baptism, spirit, love, eternal, altar, balsam, covenant, flood and 1115 more...
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MUSIC - jazz
Afro, habanera, pentatonic scale, bop, bebop, jazz, cool jazz, pentatonic, malignment, music genre, jazz musician, syncopate and 437 more...
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TECH - web application frameworks
object-oriented p..., ALGOL, validation, Erlang, markup language, Python, hibernate, framework, Apache, template, mapper, Java and 310 more...
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MUSIC - ALL TERMS
With focus on non-classical styles, but not excluding terms of the latter.
banjo, accompaniment, acoustic bass, bass guitar, bass clef, ground, brass, cornet, Mute, alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, arrangement and 866 more...
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sophasaurus's list
tactile, facilitate, optimum, balk, release, drastic, galore, corrosive, bedevilments, fierce, deliberate, potential and 13 more...
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bootload's Words
grouse, beaut, ripper, gassit, hack, hacking, twit, spon, goon, rosella, magpie, galah and 184 more...
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Autantonyms
Words with mutually exclusive double meanings. Also, here are some:
QUASI-AUTANTONYMS: slow up/slow down; bar/debar; bone/debone; burn up/burn down; fat chance/slim chance; fill in/fil...clip, cleave, sanction, handicap, fast, jibe, secrete, aloha, bimonthly, bolt, cheerio, commencement and 139 more...
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eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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A Parthian Shot: Archery Words
Just what it says. Archery rocks.
bow, arrow, longbow, crossbow, barebow, recurve, compound bow, flight, arrowhead, nock, feather, yew and 197 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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ESL Academic Word List
This is a list of academic words for students learning English as a Second or Foreign Language. It includes 570 word families that often appear in academic texts. It does not include words that are...
collapse, depression, colleagues, invoked, levy, nonetheless, likewise, so-called, ongoing, conceived, forthcoming, integrity and 558 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for release.

oroboros Contronymic in the sense: set free vs. lock in (as a new lease). Jan 27, 2007
rlehy However, if you wish, I hereby proclaim that Debian shall release woody before
December 31, 2099, or when it is ready, whichever comes first. (Manoj Srivastava) Dec 12, 2006