REPRIEVE • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Reprieve

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/riprˈiv/ Listen

noun

Reprieve n.

A temporary suspension of the execution of a sentence, especially of a sentence of death. "The morning Sir John Hotham was to die, a reprieve was sent to suspend the execution for three days."

Interval of ease or relief; respite. "All that I ask is but a short reprieve, ll I forget to love, and learn to grieve."

verb

Reprieve v. t. (past & past part. reprieved; pres. part. reprieving)

To delay the punishment of; to suspend the execution of sentence on; to give a respite to; to respite; as, to reprieve a criminal for thirty days. "He reprieves the sinnner from time to time."

To relieve for a time, or temporarily. "Company, thought it may reprieve a man from his melaneholy yet can not secure him from his conscience."

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Etymology of 'Reprieve'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Reprieve" Quotes from Famous Books

... "Ha, ha! Reprieve, I call it, because if the skipper had gone on with his silly argument much longer he would have had to be knocked out of the way. I could hardly hold myself in on account of the precious minutes. However, his guardian angel ...

— Victory • Joseph Conrad

... the wake of the Lady Fani. Hoddan picked up his bag and followed. This, he considered darkly, was in the nature of a reprieve only. And if those three spaceships overhead did come ...

— The Pirates of Ersatz • Murray Leinster

... is to die before he can reveal to the king the hiding-place of a vast treasure which would enable him to outwit the plots of some rebels who are even now conspiring to kill him. The king, hearing this, immediately orders a reprieve, and, questioning the Fox in secret, learns that the conspirators are Brown the Bear, Isegrim the Wolf, and others. To reward the Fox for saving her husband's life, the queen now obtains his pardon, which Noble grants in exchange ...

— The Book of the Epic • Helene A. Guerber

... Chenonceaux, was once imprisoned here. Even the powerful influence of Diane scarcely gained her father's pardon from Francis I. His sentence had been pronounced and he was mounting the steps of the scaffold when the reprieve came. ...

— In Chteau Land • Anne Hollingsworth Wharton

... overlooking the Castle Green, Raleigh saw Markham, a very monument of melancholy, led through the steady rain to the scaffold. He saw the Sheriff presently called away, but could not see the Scotch lad who called him, who was Gibb riding in with the reprieve. He could see Markham standing before the block, he could see the Sheriff return, speak in a low voice to Markham, and lead him away into Arthur's Hall and lock him up there. He could then see Grey led out, he could see his face light up with a gleam ...

— Raleigh • Edmund Gosse

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