release

Meanings

Noun

• The event of setting (someone or something) free (e.g. hostages, slaves, prisoners, caged animals, hooked or stuck mechanisms).
• The distribution of an initial or new and upgraded version of a computer software product; the distribution can be either public or private.
• Anything recently released or made available (as for sale).
• That which is released, untied or let go.
• The giving up of a claim, especially a debt.
• Liberation from pain or suffering.
• The process by which a chemical substance is set free.
• The act or manner of ending a sound.
• In the block system, a printed card conveying information and instructions to be used at intermediate sidings without telegraphic stations.
• A device adapted to hold or release a device or mechanism as required.
• Orgasm.
• A kind of bridge used in jazz music.

Verb

• To let go (of); to cease to hold or contain.
• To make available to the public.
• To free or liberate; to set free.
• To discharge.
• To hang up.
• 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.
• To loosen; to relax; to remove the obligation of.
• To set up; to provide with a goal-scoring opportunity
• To set free a chemical substance.
• to come out; be out.
• To lease again; to grant a new lease of; to let back.

Related

Opposite words

• hold

Origin

• From Middle English relesen, relessen, from Old French relaisser (variant of relascher).
• re- + lease