release
Verbreleases, releasing, released
Noun pluralreleases
Formsreleases, releasing, released
Pluralreleases
- 1To set a person, animal, or thing free from confinement or restraint.
The court ordered officials to release the detainees immediately.
Volunteers released the rehabilitated seals into the open sea.
UsageRelease someone from prison or custody, or release animals into the wild.
- 2To make a product, work, or piece of information available to the public; (of a product or work) to come out or become available.
The agency plans to release the report once the review is complete.
The company released its smartphone in over forty countries.
UsageFilms, albums and reports are released; in everyday talk they also come out.
- 3
- 4
- 5The act or event of setting someone or something free, such as a prisoner or a trapped mechanism.
The release of the captured animals was filmed by the rescue team.
Negotiators secured the release of the detained journalists.
UsageUsually the release of whoever goes free: secure the release of hostages.
Similarfreedom, liberation, discharge
Oppositecapture, detention, imprisonment
Note
Science stretches it to substances let out over time, as in the "slow sustained release systems" Charles T. Ambrose describes in American Scientist (2013).
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The exact phrase "slow sustained release systems" occurs in the cited Ambrose passage. en.wiktionary.org
- Charles T. Ambrose wrote the cited American Scientist article, published in 2013. americanscientist.org
- 6A new or updated version of a software product made available to users, whether publicly or to a private group; also, the distribution of such a version.
The development team scheduled the release for early next quarter.
Each new release of the operating system adds security patches.
Similarlaunch, rollout, version
Note
Software teams use this word for a version that ships, whether to the public or to a private circle of testers, and usually tag it with a version number.
- 7
- 8To loosen or relax something, or to free someone from an obligation or duty.
The bank agreed to release the borrower from part of the debt.
Signing the waiver releases the company from any liability.
UsageRelease someone from a debt, a contract or liability.
Similardischarge, free, absolve, excuse, exempt
Note
An old sense of letting off a penalty or duty lies behind modern waivers. Richard Hooker, in a part of his Ecclesiastical Polity left unprinted at his death in 1600, pairs "punishments inflicted and released", meaning penalties imposed and then remitted.
- 9The process in which a chemical substance is freed into a system or environment.
The release of histamine causes the symptoms of an allergic reaction.
Researchers measured the release of dopamine during the experiment.
UsageUsually the release of a substance, or a compound such as histamine release.
Similarsecretion, discharge, emission
Note
Physiologists use it for a hormone or neurotransmitter, stored or bound inside a cell, being let out into the surrounding medium where it can act on a target. The pattern is nearly always release of plus the substance (histamine release, the release of dopamine), and the word often stands for the whole signaling step rather than just the moment of escape.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Stored hormones can be released from intracellular vesicles into the extracellular environment. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Neurotransmitters can be released from intracellular storage into the surrounding space, where they interact with a target cell. en.wikipedia.org
Less common meanings
- 10Freedom or relief from pain or suffering.
The medication offered her some release from the constant pain.
For many, sleep is the only release from chronic worry.
UsageUsually release from pain or worry.
Similarrelief, comfort, ease, consolation, solace
- 11The thing that has been set free, untied, or let go.
Each release from the wildlife center wears a small tracking tag on its leg.
The sanctuary's newest release bounded into the forest and disappeared.
- 12A catch, button, lever, or similar device that holds a mechanism in place and frees it when operated, such as a camera's shutter release or the trip catch on a circuit breaker.
A spring-loaded release keeps the trailer locked onto the hitch until the driver lifts the lever.
Flip the release on the front fork, and the wheel slides right out.
Note
This device is named for only half of what it does: it holds a mechanism fast until it is wanted, and earns its name in the moment it lets go. The release of a stuck mechanism is an event, the act of setting free; the release on a mechanism is a part you can flip, lift or press. A circuit breaker's overload catch is one specialized kind, tripped by one particular fault.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- A release can hold a mechanism and free it when required. en.wiktionary.org
- An overload release is a specialized circuit-breaker catch triggered by an overload. en.wiktionary.org
- 13To play a pass that frees a teammate from defenders and gives them a clear opportunity to score.
Like a relay runner handing off the baton just as the lane ahead clears.
With one clever pass, he released the forward into open space.
Defenders dropped deep, but the playmaker still managed to release her teammate in front of goal.
UsageThe object is the teammate: release the striker into space or through on goal.
Similarfree
Note
A playmaker releases the striker, often into space or through on goal, as Sam Lyon writes of Benayoun releasing a teammate for an Arsenal chance on the BBC in 2011. The word stresses freedom from markers more than the pass itself.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Sam Lyon's 2011 BBC report describes Benayoun releasing Van Persie. bbc.com
- 14The voluntary giving up of a legal claim, especially the right to collect a debt.
The creditor granted a release of all remaining obligations under the contract.
A formal release extinguished the company's claim against the estate.
Similarwaiver, discharge, relinquishment
Note
Lawyers use the word for an instrument as well as an act. A release is the step by which the party entitled to a claim, most often a creditor, discharges the other side, and once it takes effect it extinguishes the obligation. The debtor is released from the debt, and the matching verb is the conveyancing verb.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- A release relinquishes a claim against the party otherwise liable. govinfo.gov
- A release may be conditional; delivery alone does not necessarily extinguish the obligation. law.cornell.edu
- An effective release of a debt discharges the debtor's obligation. govinfo.gov
- 15To give up or quit a legal claim, or to transfer a right over land or buildings to another party who already holds an interest in it.
The tenant agreed to release any claim he held over the disputed parcel.
By deed, the brothers released their interest in the property to their sister.
Similarrelinquish, waive, surrender, renounce, cede
Note
In traditional common-law conveyancing, the person who receives the right already holds an interest in the land. That is what separates this verb from an ordinary transfer. Releasing does not hand land to a stranger. It extinguishes the releasor's remaining claim in favor of someone already in possession.
- 16The climax of sexual excitement; an orgasm.
The tension built until release overtook her in a wave.
He reached release moments after she did.
Similarclimax, satisfaction
- 17
- 18To end a telephone call by hanging up or disconnecting the line.
- 19In jazz, a bridge: the contrasting middle section of a tune that departs from the main theme.
- 20The act or manner in which a sound ends or dies away.
- 21In the railway block system, a printed card carrying information and instructions, used at intermediate sidings that had no telegraph station.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
Old French relaisser, a variant of relascher, was borrowed into Middle English as relesen or relessen.