reprieve
- 01 C1 Advanced
n.an official order that stops or delays a punishment, especially for a prisoner.
n.the formal postponement or cancellation of a legal punishment, particularly a death sentence.
Simple“The prisoner was granted a last-minute reprieve while new evidence was being checked.”
In context“The governor signed a thirty-day reprieve for the inmate, allowing the legal team sufficient time to file a final appeal based on DNA evidence.”
Antonyms - 02 C1 Advanced
v.to officially stop or delay a punishment for a period of time.
v.to cancel or postpone the punishment of someone, especially a sentence of death.
Simple“The king decided to reprieve the prisoner at the very last second.”
In context“Although the court initially refused to intervene, the president exercised his power to reprieve the defendant pending further investigation.”
UsageThe verb is transitive and requires a direct object, usually a person.
“As the long school summer break approached its mid-point recently, Margate beach was crowded with families enjoying the brief reprieve between the year’s fourth and fifth heatwaves.”
“The school received a temporary reprieve last month, when the governing body announced an end to plans to “amalgamate” Soho Parish with another Church of England school nearly a mile away in Fitzrovia.”
First use appears c. 1513 in the writings of Robert Fabyan. In the sense of “to take back to prison”, from Middle English repryen (“to remand, detain”) (1494), possibly from Middle French repris, in the form of reprendre (“take back”); a cognate to reprise. The sense has become generalized, but does retain connotations of punishment and execution. The noun's first use appears c. 1592.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.