reprieve
Syllables: re·prieve/ɹɪˈpɹiːv/
reprieve verb: to cancel or postpone the punishment of someone, especially an execution.
Verb
reprieve (third-person singular simple present reprieves, present participle reprieving, simple past and past participle reprieved)
- To cancel or postpone the punishment of someone, especially an execution.
- To bring relief to someone.
- Company […] may reprieve a man from his melancholy, yet it cannot secure him from his conscience.1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London
- To take back to prison (in lieu of execution).
- To abandon or postpone plans to close, withdraw or abolish (something).
- At the time of writing the halts have been reprieved due to doubts as to the legality of the withdrawal of services. It is feared that this reprieve may not outlast the summer timetable which, on the section in question, provides only a skeleton of the former service.1960 August, L. Hyland, “The Irish Scene”, in Trains Illustrated, page 468
Noun
reprieve (countable and uncountable, plural reprieves)
- The cancellation or postponement of a punishment.
- The prisoner was saved from execution; the governor had requested a reprieve.
- A document authorizing such an action.
- Relief from pain etc., especially temporary.
- I have photographed destroyed homes, hospitals, funerals, humanitarian aid, empty markets and the daily lives of people returning to their neighborhoods during moment of reprieve.2014 August 6, James Estrin, quoting Wissam Nassar, “Photos From Both Sides of the Gaza Conflict”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the...
- Yet it was not easy, on the balance of play, to be convinced by Pellegrini and his defeated players that the reprieve might somehow be a defining moment over the two legs.2015 February 24, Daniel Taylor, “Luis Suárez strikes twice as Barcelona teach Manchester City a lesson”, in The Guardian (London)
- A cancellation or postponement of a proposed event undesired by many.
- At the time of writing the halts have been reprieved due to doubts as to the legality of the withdrawal of services. It is feared that this reprieve may not outlast the summer timetable which, on the section in question, provides only a skeleton of the former service.1960 August, L. Hyland, “The Irish Scene”, in Trains Illustrated, page 468
- And it said there was no reprieve for 435 stations already approved for closure before the report appeared.2023 March 8, Howard Johnston, “Was Marples the real railway wrecker?”, in RAIL, number 978, page 53
reprieve meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
reprieve in Tamil
- தற்காலிகமாக, தண்டனையை நிறுத்தி வை, தற்காலிக தண்டனை நிறுத்தம், தற்காலிகத் தீர்வு அல்லது ஓய்வு
reprieve in Urdu
- سزا سے معافی, وقفہ, بچانا, فرصت دینا
reprieve in Bengali
- শাস্তি, মৃত্যুদণ্ড স্থগিত করা
reprieve in Malayalam
- ശിക്ഷ താമസിപ്പിക്കുക, മാപ്പുകൊടുക്കുക, തത്കാലശമനം വരുത്തുക
More languagesFewer languages
- reprieve in Kannada
- ವಿಳಂಬ, ಬಿಡುವು, ತಡೆ, ಕಾಲಾವಕಾಶ
Examples of reprieve in a sentence
- So I gave myself a week's reprieve and started another eatathon.
- This was to defeat Podson's urgent need of anybody's company to reprieve him from his own.
- But in a twist worthy of the movie “Babe,” many of the pigs won a reprieve on Tuesday.
Forms of reprieve
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | reprieves |
| present participle | reprieving |
| past participle | reprieved |
| past | reprieved |
| alternative form | repryve |
| alternative form | reprive |
| Noun | |
| plural | reprieves |
Origin of reprieve
First use appears c. 1513 in the writings of Robert Fabyan. In the sense of “to take back to prison”, from Middle English repryen (“to remand, detain”) (1494), possibly from Middle French repris, in the form of reprendre (“take back”); a cognate to reprise. The sense has become generalized, but does retain connotations of punishment and execution. The noun's first use appears c. 1592.
Words formed from reprieve
Questions about reprieve
- What does reprieve mean?
- Reprieve means to cancel or postpone the punishment of someone, especially an execution.
- What is reprieve in Tamil?
- Reprieve in Tamil is தற்காலிகமாக, தண்டனையை நிறுத்தி வை, தற்காலிக தண்டனை நிறுத்தம். See Reprieve meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is reprieve?
- Reprieve can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce reprieve?
- Reprieve is pronounced /ɹɪˈpɹiːv/.
- What is the past tense of reprieve?
- The past tense of reprieve is reprieved.
Words near reprieve in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: reprieve (page history and authors); reprieve (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); reprieve (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); reprieve (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); reprieve (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); reprieve (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-reprieve.ogg.
Cite this entry: “reprieve.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/reprieve. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.