ease

/eez/, n., v., eased, easing.

n.

1. freedom from labor, pain, or physical annoyance; tranquil rest; comfort: to enjoy one's ease.

2. freedom from concern, anxiety, or solicitude; a quiet state of mind: to be at ease about one's health.

3. freedom from difficulty or great effort; facility: It can be done with ease.

4. freedom from financial need; plenty: a life of ease on a moderate income.

5. freedom from stiffness, constraint, or formality; unaffectedness: ease of manner; the ease and elegance of her poetry.

6. at ease. Mil. a position of rest in which soldiers may relax but may not leave their places or talk.

v.t.

7. to free from anxiety or care: to ease one's mind.

8. to mitigate, lighten, or lessen: to ease pain.

9. to release from pressure, tension, or the like.

10. to move or shift with great care: to ease a car into a narrow parking space.

11. to render less difficult; facilitate: I'll help if it will ease your job.

12. to provide (an architectural member) with an easement.

13. Shipbuilding. to trim (a timber of a wooden hull) so as to fair its surface into the desired form of the hull.

14. Naut.

a. to bring (the helm or rudder of a vessel) slowly amidships.

b. to bring the head of (a vessel) into the wind.

c. to slacken or lessen the hold upon (a rope).

d. to lessen the hold of (the brake of a windlass).

v.i.

15. to abate in severity, pressure, tension, etc. (often fol. by off or up).

16. to become less painful, burdensome, etc.

17. to move, shift, or be moved or be shifted with great care.

18. ease out, to remove from a position of authority, a job, or the like, esp. by methods intended to be tactful: He was eased out as division head to make way for the boss's nephew.

[1175-1225; (n.) ME ese, eise < AF ese, OF aise, eise comfort, convenience < VL *adjace(m), acc. of *adjaces vicinity (cf. ML in aiace in (the) vicinity), the regular outcome of L adjacens ADJACENT, taken in VL as a n. of the type nubes, acc. nubem cloud; (v.) ME esen < AF e(i)ser, OF aisier, deriv. of the n.]

Syn. 1. repose, contentment, effortlessness. EASE, COMFORT refer to a sense of relaxation or of well-being. EASE implies a relaxed condition with an absence of effort or pressure: a life of ease. COMFORT suggests a sense of well-being, along with ease, which produces a quiet happiness and contentment: comfort in one's old age. 2. tranquillity, serenity, calmness, peace. 5. naturalness, informality. 7. comfort, relieve, disburden; tranquilize, soothe. 8. alleviate, assuage, allay, abate, reduce.

Ant. 1. discomfort, effort. 2. disturbance. 5. stiffness, formality, tenseness.

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