reprieve

present singular third person reprieves · participle present reprieving · participle past reprieved · past reprieved · alternative repryve · alternative reprive

1. transitiveTo cancel or postpone the punishment of someone, especially an execution.
2. transitiveTo bring relief to someone.

   Company […] may reprieve a man from his melancholy, yet it cannot secure him from his conscience.

   1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London

3. obsoletetransitiveTo take back to prison (in lieu of execution).
4. transitiveTo abandon or postpone plans to close, withdraw or abolish (something).

   At the time of writing the halts have been reprieved due to doubts as to the legality of the withdrawal of services. It is feared that this reprieve may not outlast the summer timetable which, on the section in question, provides only a skeleton of the former service.

   1960 August, L. Hyland, “The Irish Scene”, in Trains Illustrated, page 468

plural reprieves · alternative repryve · alternative reprive

1. countableuncountableThe cancellation or postponement of a punishment.

   The prisoner was saved from execution; the governor had requested a reprieve.

2. countableuncountableA document authorizing such an action.
3. countableuncountableRelief from pain etc., especially temporary.

   Yet it was not easy, on the balance of play, to be convinced by Pellegrini and his defeated players that the reprieve might somehow be a defining moment over the two legs.

   2015 February 24, Daniel Taylor, “Luis Suárez strikes twice as Barcelona teach Manchester City a lesson”, in The Guardian (London)

   1 more example

   I have photographed destroyed homes, hospitals, funerals, humanitarian aid, empty markets and the daily lives of people returning to their neighborhoods during moment of reprieve.

   2014 August 6, James Estrin, quoting Wissam Nassar, “Photos From Both Sides of the Gaza Conflict”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 06 Aug 2014

4. countableuncountableA cancellation or postponement of a proposed event undesired by many.

   And it said there was no reprieve for 435 stations already approved for closure before the report appeared.

   2023 March 8, Howard Johnston, “Was Marples the real railway wrecker?”, in RAIL, number 978, page 53

   1 more example

   At the time of writing the halts have been reprieved due to doubts as to the legality of the withdrawal of services. It is feared that this reprieve may not outlast the summer timetable which, on the section in question, provides only a skeleton of the former service.

   1960 August, L. Hyland, “The Irish Scene”, in Trains Illustrated, page 468