transitive verb released -·leased′, releasing -·leas′·ing

1. to set free, as from confinement, duty, work, etc.
2. to let go or let loose to release an arrow
3. to grant freedom from a tax, penalty, obligation, etc.
4. to set free from pain, cares, etc.; relieve
5. ☆ to permit to be issued, shown, published, broadcast, etc.; put into circulation
6. Law to give up or surrender to someone else (a claim, right, etc.)

Etymology: ME relesen < OFr relaisser < L relaxare: see relax

noun

1. a setting free or being set free; deliverance; liberation
2. a freeing or being freed from a tax, obligation, etc.
3. 1. a relief from pain, cares, etc.
   2. relief from emotional tension through a spontaneous, uninhibited expression of an emotion
4. a document authorizing release, as from an obligation, from prison, etc.
5. the act of letting loose something caught, held in position, etc.
6. a device to release a catch, etc., as for starting or stopping a machine
7. ☆
   1. the act of releasing a book, film, news story, etc. to the public
   2. the book, film, news story, etc. released
8. Music
   1. the act or method of ending a tone
   2. ☆ the third group of eight measures in a common form of 32-bar chorus, as in a popular tune, which supplies a bridge between repetitions of the melody
9. Law
   1. a giving up or surrender to someone else, as of a claim or right
   2. the document by which this is done; quitclaim