RESPITE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Respite

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/rˈɛspɪt/ Listen

noun

Respite n.

A putting off of that which was appointed; a postponement or delay. "I crave but four day's respite."

Temporary intermission of labor, or of any process or operation; interval of rest; pause; delay. "Without more respite." "Some pause and respite only I require."

(Law)

(a)

Temporary suspension of the execution of a capital offender; reprieve.

(b)

The delay of appearance at court granted to a jury beyond the proper term.

Synonyms: Pause; interval; stop; cessation; delay; postponement; stay; reprieve.

verb

Respite v. t. (past & past part. respited; pres. part. respiting) To give or grant a respite to. Specifically:

(a)

To delay or postpone; to put off.

(b)

To keep back from execution; to reprieve. "Forty days longer we do respite you."

(c)

To relieve by a pause or interval of rest. "To respite his day labor with repast."

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Etymology of 'Respite'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Respite" Quotes from Famous Books

... remain as the witness to a distressing scene, but she seized upon the delay, for even a sordid lovers' quarrel was preferable to the caresses of a sodden bridegroom. But daylight seemed a long way off—she feared Bob would not fall asleep during this brief respite. ...

— The Auction Block • Rex Beach

... High office brought to him a marked care for those little chivalries which are part of Parliamentary warfare. In the height of the fight fatigue sometimes overwhelmed even his sturdy frame and spirit, and he would snatch half an hour's respite from the Treasury bench in his own room behind the Speaker's chair. But he would break off this short indulgence instantly when the ticker indicated that his principal opponents had begun to speak. Directly it was shown that Mr. Austen ...

— Lloyd George - The Man and His Story • Frank Dilnot

... respite then, and beyond the line of poplars all was quiet. The enemy liked time for foods and the Belgians crippled by the loss of that earlier train, were husbanding their ammunition. Far away a gap in the poplar trees showed a German observation balloon, ...

— The Amazing Interlude • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... followed. "Reckon he's hungry as I am," Rodney remarked to himself. Then came the thought, why not divide with the bear? Suiting action to word the lad quickly cut his meat in two pieces, flinging one behind. With a growl the brute savagely seized it and the boy hurried on. The respite was brief, however, for not many minutes passed before he heard his pursuer, appetite whetted by what he had ...

— Rodney, the Ranger - With Daniel Morgan on Trail and Battlefield • John V. Lane

... was already doing, in the same way that the competitor in a race is bidden by the spectators to run when he is already running. But I was not certain of this, for the dream might have meant music in the popular sense of the word, and being under sentence of death, and the festival giving me a respite, I thought that it would be safer for me to satisfy the scruple, and, in obedience to the dream, to compose a few verses before I departed. And first I made a hymn in honour of the god of the festival, and then considering that a poet, if he is really to be a poet, should not only put ...

— Phaedo - The Last Hours Of Socrates • Plato

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