ease
- 1Lack of difficulty in doing something; the quality of being able to do it easily.
She handled the difficult questions with remarkable ease.
The new software lets users edit their photos with ease.
Oppositedifficulty
Note
Behind every sense of the word stands Old French eise, "elbow room; opportunity," of obscure origin and apparently kin to Italian agio. Here the commonest frame is with ease: you play an instrument or pass exams with ease. The other two shapes it takes are the ease of doing something and the ease with which someone does it. Its plain synonym is facility, and its opposite is difficulty.
- 2Freedom from work or effort; a state of leisure and rest.
He spent his Sundays in complete ease, dozing in the garden with a book.
She longed for a few days of ease after the busy season.
Similarrest, relaxation, leisure, comfort, peace
Oppositetoil, labor, work, exertion
Note
Rest you take, rather than a state you happen to be in: the idiom is take one's ease, as in "We took our ease on the patio." Leisure, rest and relaxation sit close by, but only this word forms the idiom with take. You take your ease, while you have leisure.
- 3Freedom from pain, hardship, and annoyance; in archaic, derogatory use, idleness or sloth.
Surrounded by every comfort, the old man passed his final years in untroubled ease.
The settlers found ease at last after surviving the harsh winter.
Oppositehardship, discomfort, suffering
- 4To free a person or thing from pain, worry, agitation, or distress.
A few reassuring words can ease a patient's anxiety before surgery.
The counselor worked to ease the grieving family's distress.
Similarrelieve, calm, soothe, allay, alleviate
Oppositeaggravate, heighten, worsen, intensify
Note
The verb takes the troubled person or mind as its object and the trouble with of. George Whetstone, in The Ortchard of Repentance (1576), wrote of a book invented "to ease his mynde of griefe." The mind is still the favorite object, as in John Branch's Snow Fall (2012), where skiers carry gear to ease their minds. Compare the pain-lessening sense, where the object is the pain itself.
- 5To move something slowly and carefully into or out of a position.
The movers carefully eased the piano through the doorway.
Workers ease the steel beam into place using a crane.
Similarguide, slide, slip, edge, inch
Oppositemaneuver
Note
Care rather than speed is the point, and the verb usually travels with a direction word. You ease a cork from a bottle, ease down off boulders, or watch tankers easing up and down Milford Haven. Enos A. Mills's The Rocky Mountain Wonderland (1915) gives the reason for the care: ease down, because "a jump may jar or sprain."
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- 8To reduce the difficulty of doing or dealing with something.
The software update eased the process of filing taxes online.
Clear instructions ease the work of new employees.
Similarsimplify, facilitate, smooth, expedite
Oppositecomplicate, hinder, hamper, impede
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- 10Freedom from embarrassment or awkwardness in social situations; a natural, graceful manner.
The host welcomed strangers with an ease that made them feel instantly comfortable.
He handled the awkward question with the ease of a seasoned performer.
Similarpoise, composure, aplomb, sangfroid
Oppositeawkwardness, embarrassment, self-consciousness
Note
Here the ease is in the manner, the poise that aplomb and composure also name. It is easy to blur with the "lack of difficulty" meaning, because both follow with. Handling a task with ease means without effort. Dealing with people with authority and ease means without awkwardness. The test is whether the ease belongs to the task or to the bearing.
- 11Freedom from worry and concern; peace of mind, which in archaic, derogatory use shaded toward indifference.
Once the debt was cleared, a long-absent ease settled over the household.
He spent his retirement in quiet ease, untroubled by deadlines.
Oppositeanxiety, worry, unease, disquiet
Note
The mind's version of comfort has a fixed home in the phrase set someone's mind at ease. Lord Dunsany's The Gods of Pegāna (1905) sets it against storm: "There is ease in the soul of Slid and there be calms upon the sea." The archaic, disapproving shade of indifference is the same calm judged harshly, as a failure to care.
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- 14Release from or reduction of pain, hardship, or annoyance.
The painkillers offered some ease from the constant aching.
The ceasefire brought the villagers ease from years of fear.
Similarrelief, comfort, solace, consolation, alleviation
Note
A noun that wants a preposition: you give or provide ease from pain, or ease of a hardship. The from or of marks relief from something rather than the comfort that results. Without it, the word slides back toward the plain "comfort" meaning. Liss and solace belong to the same idea of relief.
- 15Release from constraint, obligation, or a tightly confined position.
After an hour at attention, the recruits were finally ordered to stand at ease.
The soldiers felt the ease that came when the curfew was lifted.
Similarfreedom, relief, release
Note
The military command at ease belongs here, as in "At ease, soldier!" It releases soldiers from a rigid stance and lets them stand more loosely. The same idea of release from a constrained position runs into ordinary speech, where putting someone at ease frees them from stiffness.
- 16Extra space built into a garment to allow freer movement.
The pattern adds two inches of ease across the chest for comfort.
Without enough ease in the shoulders, the shirt pulls when you reach.
Note
A dressmaker's term that keeps the elbow room of its Old French source, whose story is told under the "lack of difficulty" meaning. Ease is the margin between body measurements and the finished garment, added to a measurement, as in "add some ease to the waist." Patternmakers divide it into wearing ease, which allows movement, and design ease, which serves style.
- 17To let out a little rope or line to reduce its tension.
Ease the mainsheet a little as the wind drops.
The crew eased the halyard to bring the flag down.
Similarslacken, loosen, relax, release
Note
On a boat you ease a line, sheet or vang: you let it out gradually and under control, paying out rope to take off tension rather than casting it off. Crews ease the boom vang before lowering a sail. The word always implies a measured, held release, never letting go.
- 18A convenience or luxury; something that adds comfort to life.
The merchant's home wanted for no ease that fortune could provide.
Travelers found at the inn every ease they had longed for on the road.
Similaramenity
Note
Where modern ease names a condition, this obsolete sense named a thing: a single comfort or luxury. A house could want for no ease, and an inn could offer every ease. Modern English says amenity instead. In current writing the word works this way only as deliberate period color.
- 19A relief or easement; an instance of being freed from a burden.
Similaralleviation, mitigation
Note
A meaning that has dropped out of use: one particular relief, a burden lifted, rather than the general state of comfort. Today relief, alleviation or mitigation does this work. In older texts, read it as close kin to release from pain or hardship. Avoid it in new writing, where readers will take it for the ordinary state of being at ease.
- 20A genteel word for relief of the bowels; defecation.
Similardefecation, dump, poop, crap
Note
A polite cover for a bodily act, built on the idea of relief: the body is eased, and the person finds ease. Its synonyms easement and call of nature show the same delicacy. The sense is obsolete. Today take one's ease means only rest, so using the word of the bathroom would confuse readers rather than soften anything.
- 21To relieve a person of something, especially by robbing them.
The highwaymen would ease wealthy travelers of their jewels at gunpoint.
Coming up to the thief they eased him of his late acquisitions, which Redmond, restoring to the right owner, bound him over to prosecute the robber at the next assizes.
1865, The Dublin University MagazineNote
Thieves' slang with a grim joke inside it: to ease someone of their goods borrows the polite construction of the "free from worry" verb, as if the robber were lifting a burden. The Dublin University Magazine of 1865 has captors who "eased him of his late acquisitions." The sense is archaic, and in modern prose it reads as period color or deliberate irony.
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Origin
"Ease" comes from Middle English "ese," borrowed through Anglo-Norman "ese" from Old French "eise" or "aise" ("elbow room; opportunity"), a word of uncertain and obscure origin. It is often traced to Vulgar Latin, perhaps from Latin "adjacēns" ("adjacent") or "ānsa" ("handle"), though the forms and senses are hard to follow; some suggest instead a Germanic or Celtic source. The verb comes from Middle English "esen," of the same ultimate origin.