Search the Dictionary

Assistance; relief; support. [Obs. except in the phrase "aid and comfort." See 5 below.] Shak.

c form with three movements) in which one instrument (or two or three) stands out in bold relief against the orchestra, or accompaniment, so as to display its qualities or the performer's skill.

A gem engraved, or a plate embossed in low relief, for inlaying a vase or other object.

Half relief; sculpture in relief of which the figures project from the background by one half their full roundness.

Freedom or relief from impediment or perplexity.

Freedom from anything that pains or troubles; as: (a) Relief from labor or effort; rest; quiet; relaxation; as, ease of body. Usefulness comes by labor, wit by ease. Herbert. Give yourself ease from the fatigue of watching. Swift.

That which gives ease, relief, or assistance; convenience; accommodation. In need of every kind of relief and easement. Burke.

A work sculptured in relief, as a cameo, or in bas-relief (in this sense used loosely).

A method of etching in which the design upon the plate is produced in relief.

A style of engraving in relief by means of voltaic electricity. A picture is drawn on a metallic plate with some material which resists the fluids of a battery; so that, in electro-typing, the parts not covered by the varnish, etc., receive a deposition of metal, and produce the required copy in intaglio. A cast of thi…

To raise in relief from a surface, as an ornament, a head on a coin, or the like. Then o'er the lofty gate his art embossed Androgeo's death. Dryden. Exhibiting flowers in their natural color embossed upon a purple ground. Sir W. Scott.

A bosslike prominence; figure in relief; raised work; jut; protuberance; esp., a combination of raised surfaces having a decorative effect. "The embossment of the figure." Addison.

rrying away steam that escapes through a safety valve. -- Escape valve (Steam Engine), a relief valve; a safety valve. See under Relief, and Safety. -- Escape wheel (Horol.), the wheel of an escapement.

An artist who models or forms statues and reliefs in any plastic material. [R.] Elmes.

Finger post, a guide post bearing an index finger. -- Finger reading, reading printed in relief so as to be sensible to the touch; -- so made for the blind. -- Finger shell (Zoöl.), a marine shell (Pholas dactylus) resembling a finger in form. -- Finger sponge (Zoöl.), a sponge having finger-shaped lobes, or branche…

Wanting relief; destitute of variety; without points of prominence and striking interest. A large part of the work is, to me, very flat. Coleridge.

Eveness of surface; want of relief or prominence; the state of being plane or level.

On a painting, and sometimes in a bas-relief, mosaic picture, or the like, that part of the scene represented, which is nearest to the spectator, and therefore occupies the lowest part of the work of art itself. Cf. Distance, n., 6.

Ornamental work in relief, as carving or embossing. See Fretwork.

Work adorned with frets; ornamental openwork or work in relief, esp. when elaborate and minute in its parts. Heuce, any minute play of light andshade, dark and light, or the like. Banqueting on the turf in the fretwork of shade and sunshine. Macaulay.