Word.ws English Dictionary

rescue

Syllables: res·cueUK/ˈɹɛs.kjuː//ˈɹɛs.kju/

rescue verb: to save from any violence, danger or evil.

Verb

rescue (third-person singular simple present rescues, present participle rescuing, simple past and past participle rescued)

  1. (transitive) To save from any violence, danger or evil.
    • The well-trained team rescued everyone after the avalanche.
    • Sir John Franklin's 1845 expedition was lost with two ships and 129 men, inspiring dozens of subsequent expeditions to find and rescue him, none of them successful.1989 May, Jeff MacInnis, “Braving the Northwest Passage”, in National Geographic, volume 175, number 5, page 586
    Antonyms:
    endanger, imperil
  2. (transitive) To free or liberate from confinement or other physical restraint.
    • to rescue a prisoner from the enemy
    Synonyms:
    liberate, release
    Antonyms:
    arrest, capture, kidnap
  3. (transitive) To recover forcibly, especially from a siege.
    Antonyms:
    besiege, capture
  4. (figuratively, transitive) To remove or withdraw from a state of exposure to evil and sin.
    • Traditionally missionaries aim to rescue many ignorant heathen souls.
    Synonyms:
    redeem, save
    Antonyms:
    corrupt, deprave
  5. (figuratively, transitive) To achieve something positive under difficult conditions.
    • Jews rescued some normalcy from increasingly difficult times by assuaging their constant Angst in the family and community and making do with less.1999, Marion A. Kaplan, Between Dignity and Despair, Oxford University Press, →ISBN
    • Arsenal's hopes of starting their Champions League campaign with an away win were dashed when substitute Ivan Perisic's superb late volley rescued a point for Borussia Dortmund.2011 September 13, Sam Lyon, “Borussia Dortmund 1 - 1 Arsenal”, in BBC
  6. (transitive) To restore a particular trait in an organism that was lost or altered, especially where this loss was as the consequence of some experimental manipulation.
    • Mecp2^(R255X/+) [mice] developed an overweight body weight phenotype by 10 weeks age and increased liver and heart weight by 8 months age. Abnormal body, liver and heart weight in Mecp2^(R255X/+) was rescued by MECP2ᵀᵍ¹ allele.2015, Meagan R. Pitcher et al., “Rett syndrome like phenotypes in the R255X Mecp2 mutant mouse are rescued by MECP2 transgene”, in Human Molecular Genetics, volume 24, number 9, →DOI, page 2664
  7. (transitive) To salvage and restore something that has been discarded.
    • I rescued a set of antique dining chairs.
    • She had rescued a sofa once, had managed to locate the dealer who had bought it from under her nose while she perused a junk shop, and offered to buy it from him.2016 May 26, Jojo Moyes, Foreign Fruit: 'Blissful, romantic reading' - Company, Hachette UK, →ISBN
  8. (transitive) To fix a mistake made while preparing something, especially in cooking.
    • The cook rescued the sauce after it began to curdle.
    • To rescue whipped cream that has been overwhipped and appears grainy, add a little more liquid cream and whip it briefly or until very smooth and soft.2019 November 12, Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, Ethan Becker, John Becker, Megan Scott, Joy of Cooking: Fully Revised and Updated, Scribner, →ISBN, page 791
  9. (transitive) To adopt (an animal).
    • We rescued a dog, Dylan, which would begin my lifelong love of animals, especially dogs.2018 July 31, Olivia Hussey, The Girl on the Balcony: Olivia Hussey Finds Life after Romeo and Juliet, Kensington Books, →ISBN

Noun

rescue (countable and uncountable, plural rescues)

  1. An act or episode of rescuing, saving.
    • Guests marveled that they kept making more rescues.2023 May 5, Declan Walsh, “‘Only Word for Them Is Heroes’: How 2 Students Rescued Dozens in Sudan”, in The New York Times
  2. A liberation, freeing.
  3. (largely obsolete) The act of unlawfully freeing a person, or confiscated goods, from custody.
  4. The forcible ending of a siege; liberation from similar military peril.
    • The rescue of Jerusalem was the original motive of the Crusaders
  5. A special airliner flight to bring home passengers who are stranded.
  6. A rescuee.
    • The dog was a rescue with some behavior issues.

Proper noun capitalized: Rescue

Rescue

  1. A city in California.

rescue meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

rescue in Hindi

to save from any danger or violence
बचाना bacānā
act of rescuing, saving
बचाव bacāv, मुक्ति mukti

rescue in Tamil

மீட்பு, காப்பாற்று

rescue in Urdu

to save from any danger or violence
بچانا bacānā

rescue in Bengali

rescue, escape
বাঁচাও bãcaō
rescue
পরিত্রাণ poritran
rescue, relief
বাঁচন bãcon
More languagesFewer languages
rescue in Telugu
దక్కించు dakkiñcu
rescue in Malayalam
രക്ഷ rakṣa
rescue in Kannada
ಪಾರು ಮಾಡುವುದು, ಉಳಿಸುವುದು, ರಕ್ಷಿಸುವುದು, ಬಿಡುಗಡೆ
rescue in Gujarati
બચાવ
rescue in Odia
ଉଦ୍ଧାର uddhāra
rescue in Sanskrit
पिपर्ति piparti
rescue in Pashto
بچ bač
rescue in Tagalog
pagliligtas
rescue in Arabic
أَنْقَذَ ʔanqaḏa, خَلَّصَ ḵallaṣa, نَجَّى najjā, أنقذ ʔánqaz
rescue in Persian
نجات دادن nejât dâdan, نجات nejât
rescue in Thai
ช่วยเหลือ chûai-lʉ̌ʉa, กู้ภัย gûu-pai
rescue in Vietnamese
cứu, sự cứu
rescue in Myanmar
ကယ်ဆယ် kaihcai

Examples of rescue in a sentence

  • Trying to rescue the man from the burning building cost them their lives.
  • The rescue workers preserved a gleam of optimism that the trapped miners might still survive.
  • Two firemen tragically stifled in yesterday’s fire when trying to rescue an old lady from her bedroom.

All 40 example sentences with rescue

Synonyms of rescue

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of rescue

Forms of rescue

Verb
third-person singular presentrescues
present participlerescuing
past participlerescued
pastrescued
Noun
pluralrescues

Past tense of rescue: rescued

Plural of rescue: rescues

Origin of rescue

From Middle English rescouen, from Old French rescoure, rescurre, rescorre; from Latin prefix re- (“re-”) + excutere (“to shake or drive out”), from ex (“out”) + quatiō (“to shake”). Displaced native Old English nerian.

Words formed from rescue

Phrases with rescue

1 more phrasesFewer phrases

Questions about rescue

What does rescue mean?
Rescue means to save from any violence, danger or evil.
What is rescue in Hindi?
Rescue in Hindi is बचाना (bacānā), बचाव (bacāv), मुक्ति (mukti). See Rescue meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is rescue?
Rescue can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce rescue?
Rescue is pronounced /ˈɹɛs.kjuː/ (UK).
What is the past tense of rescue?
The past tense of rescue is rescued.

Words near rescue in the dictionary

  1. rescrubs
  2. rescrutiny
  3. rescuable
  4. rescuant
  5. rescuants
  6. rescue
  7. rescue board
  8. rescue boards
  9. rescue circle
  10. rescue circles
  11. rescue dog

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rescue (page history and authors); Rescue (page history and authors); rescue (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); পরিত্রাণ (Bengali) (page history and authors); దక్కించు (Telugu) (page history and authors); രക്ഷ (Malayalam) (page history and authors); rescue (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); rescue (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ଉଦ୍ଧାର (Odia) (page history and authors); بچ (Pashto) (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-rescue.ogg.

Cite this entry: “rescue.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rescue. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.