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a person in mounting a horse, and to enable him to sit steadily in riding, as well as to relieve him by supporting a part of the weight of the body. Our host upon his stirpoes stood anon. Chaucer.

tiono run to, or run to support; hence, to help or relieve when in difficulty, want, or distress; to assist and deliver from suffering; to relieve; as, to succor a besieged city. [Written also succour.] He is able to succor them that are tempted. Heb. ii. 18.

To aid, comfort, or relieve; to vindicate. Shak. His sons, who seek the tyrant to sustain. Dryden.

To make less painful or laborious; to relieve; as, to sweeten the cares of life. Dryden. And sweeten every secret tear. Keble.

Irksomeness; wearisomeness; tediousness. [Written also tædium.] Cowper. To relieve the tedium, he kept plying them with all manner of bams. Prof. Wilson. The tedium of his office reminded him more strongly of the willing scholar, and his thoughts were rambling. Dickens.

To perforate (the skull) with a trepan, so as to remove a portion of the bone, and thus relieve the brain from pressure or irritation; to perform an operation with the trepan.

To relieve of numbness; to restore sensation to.

To relieve from a burden.

To relieve from the dumps. [Obs.] Fuller.

Hence, to relieve from anything onerous.

To relieve of a pack or burden. [R.] Shak.

To relieve from sadness; to cheer. [R.] Whitlock.

To relieve from a strain; to relax. B. Jonson.

To take a swathe from; to relieve from a bandage; to unswaddle. Addison.

To relieve from perspiration; to ease or cool after exercise or toil. [R.] Milton.

A bundle of straw, or other material, to relieve the pressure of burdens carried upon the head. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.

head or nut, or around a wagon axle to prevent endwise motion of the hub of the wheel and relieve friction, or in a joint to form a packing, etc.