reliever
(rɪˈliːvə(r))
Also 6 -or.
[f. relieve v.]
1. a. One who relieves, in senses of the verb.
| 1485 Caxton Chas. Gt. 240 Defendour of crysten men.., Releuer of chyrches. 1589 Warner Alb. Eng. Prose Add. (1602) 336 If we should proue so vngratefull as to resist our Relieuors. 1633 T. Stafford Pac. Hib. ii. iii. (1821) 243 It grieved him that the Lord President should suspect him to bee a Releever of James fits-Thomas. 1670 Dryden 1st Pt. Conq. Granada ii. i, If there appear relievers from the field, The flag of parley may be taken down. 1776 Adam Smith W.N. v. i. iii. iii. II. 395 The comforters of their distress, and the relievers of their indigence. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. iv. vii, Borrowing an hour or so, to be repaid again when he should relieve his reliever. |
† b. Among the Brownists, a deacon appointed to administer relief to the poor. Obs.
| 1582 Browne Booke which Sheweth Def. 54 The Releeuers or Deacons, which are to gather and bestowe the church liberalitie. Ibid., The Releeuer is a person hauing office of God to prouide, gather, and bestowe the giftes and liberalitie of the church, as there is neede. 1610 Bp. Hall Apol. against Brownists §20 Is there no remedie but you must needs haue such Elders, Pastors, Doctors, Releeuers..? |
c. A member of the Relief Church.
| 1895 British Weekly 7 Feb. 258/1 In this life of yesterday the seceders and ‘relievers’ were great, though plain. 1897 H. Calderwood in Mem. Jubilee Synod U.P. Church 100 Seceders were soon followed by Relievers, and organised Churches grew up. |
d. N. Amer. A pitcher who relieves the opening pitcher in a baseball match.
| 1967 Boston Herald 8 May 16/2 Fregosi homered in the fifth..off reliever Bob Humphreys. 1976 Washington Post 19 Apr. d1/4 Los Angeles chased reliever Roger Moret in the seventh with a five-run explosion. 1979 Arizona Daily Star 5 Aug. c2/2 Craig Swan combined with reliever Neil Allen on an eight-hitter as New York stopped Montreal's five-game winning streak. |
2. † a. An instrument consisting of an iron ring fixed at right angles to a handle, used in gun testing to release the searcher when fixed. Obs.
| 1800 Naval Chron. IV. 54 Take a searcher with one prong, and a reliever. 1802 James Milit. Dict. |
b. A device to ease the working of a lock.
| 1801 Trans. Soc. Arts XIX. 291 The reliever works so very easy, that the door is made fast. |
c. A device for attaching the wire stays of a yacht to the hull in such a way as to lessen the strain on them. (Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl. 1884.)
3. slang. (See quot.)
| 1850 Kingsley Cheap Clothes 11 In some sweating places there is an old coat kept called a ‘reliever’, and this is borrowed by such men as have none of their own to go out in. |
Hence reˈlieveress. rare—1.
| 1631 Celestina xi. 127 Thou ease of my passions, thou relieveresse of my paine. |