Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To be dependent for support, help, or supply: relies on her parents for tuition.
- v. To place or have faith or confidence: relied on them to tell him the truth.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To fasten; fix; attach.
- To bring together again; assemble again; rally.
- To polish.
- To attach one's faith to a person or thing; fix one's confidence; rest with confidence, as upon the veracity, integrity, or ability of another, or upon the certainty of facts or of evidence; have confidence; trust; depend: used with on or upon, formerly also with in and to. Compare reliable.
- To assemble again; rally.
- To rest, in a physical sense; recline; lean.
Wiktionary
- v. To rest with confidence, as when fully satisfied of the veracity, integrity, or ability of persons, or of the certainty of facts or of evidence; to have confidence; to trust; to depend; — with on, formerly also with in.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To rest with confidence, as when fully satisfied of the veracity, integrity, or ability of persons, or of the certainty of facts or of evidence; to have confidence; to trust; to depend; -- with
on , formerly also within .
WordNet 3.0
- v. have confidence or faith in
Etymologies
- From Old French relier ("fasten, attach, rally, oblige"), from Latin religo ("fasten, bind fast"), from re- + ligo. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English relien, to rally, from Old French relier, from Latin religāre, to bind fast : re-, re- + ligāre, to bind; see leig- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“That's great, until it becomes apparent that "rely" is exactly what they are doing.”
“But he neglected to inform the Court of Appeals that the FBI data on which he was asking the court to rely is qualified by an endnote explaining that the data for the years after the gun ban went into effect was not comparable to the data for the years before the gun ban.”
“The Citadel will also again rely on fellow guards Zach Urbanus, who averaged 10.6 points in 32 starts, and Austin Dahn, who finished at 6.9 points per game, as well as forwards Harrison DuPont, who averaged 6.9 points and 4.1 rebounds, and Bryan Streeter, who finished at 5.0 points and 4.7 rebounds per game.”
“I've read a lot about Goldwater, but one of the historians on whom I rely is author Rick Perlstein.”
The Huffington Post: Taylor Marsh: Sarah Palin's Team Sends Smoke Signal on 2012
“If you can't entice Maria or Juana into sorting through the juicy delicious blackberries, strawberries, raspberries and figs, again rely upon your fingers.”
“If we simply ditch Hussein, our friends will never again rely upon us.”
“From this time, the support on which you must rely is the home of your husband.”
“CSI: Descriptive Subtitle rely heavily on fake technologies. which of these would you most like to be real?”
“2 We do not in this memorandum attempt to reach a definitive conclusion on the question whether the use of signing statements to create legislative history on which the courts are to rely is or is not legitimate.”
““In addition, while traditional phone lines generally keep working during a blackout, VoIP users might not be able to dial 911 during a power outage because the high-speed Internet modems, phone adapters and personal computers needed for VoIP calling rely on electrical outlets and batteries.””
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘rely’.
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grade 3
ability, absorb, act, tive, actual, adopt, advantage, ambition, ancient, arrange, arctic, attitude and 125 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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common UA vocab. in US
Interesting, there is a traditional vocabulary of an Ukrainian, that differs from vocabulary of average American. It would be nice to explore it.
jackdaw, incongruous, cassock, vivid, magpie, humdrum, amongst, wonder, wandering, wheedling, wheedle, osseous and 368 more...
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Ayumi G3
Ability, absorb, accuse, act, active, actual, adopt, advantage, advice, ambition, ancient, approach and 128 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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favorite words
ennui, bonhomie, eschew, liaison, serendipity, lovely, dusk, kitten, epitome, sexy, beloved, darling and 396 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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kevinl's Words
indefatigable, dabble, befuddle, fin, infinity, might, futile, squirm, bookish, feint, liquidity, belt and 126 more...
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Words to learn
omit, in all likelihood, unlikely, utterly, every now and then, once in a while, deceptive, consequence, after all, ever since, reckon, show off and 52 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for rely.

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