English
reliance
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ɹɪˈlaɪəns/
Noun

reliance

  1. The act of relying (on or in someone or something); trust.
    Your reliance on his expertise may be misplaced.
    • circa 1607 William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens, Act II, Scene 1,
      […] his days and times are past
      And my reliances on his fracted [i.e. broken] dates
      Have smit my credit:
    • 1752, Charlotte Lennox, The Female Quixote, London: A. Millar, Volume 2, Book 9, Chapter 9, p. 288,
      How unfavourable is Chance, said Arabella fretting at the Disappointment, to Persons who have any Reliance upon it!
    • 1867, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “Samuel Johnson” in Biographical and Historical Sketches, New York: Appleton, p. 54,
      It was out of his power to support his son at either university; but a wealthy neighbor offered assistance; and, in reliance on promises which proved to be of very little value, Samuel was entered at Pembroke College, Oxford.
    • 1912, W. Somerset Maugham, Mrs. Dot, London: Heinemann, Act 2, p. 89,
      I put infinite reliance in your tact.
    • 1962, C. S. Forester, Hornblower and the Hotspur, London: Michael, Joseph, Chapter 3,
      Hornblower could see in a flash that he could place implicit reliance on Bush’s seamanship.
  2. The condition of being reliant or dependent.
    The industry is working to phase out its reliance on fossil fuels.
    • 1933, “‘Rumbling’ & ‘Goosing’,” Time (magazine), 25 September, 1933,[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,882226,00.html]
      […] he contended that habitual reliance on engine power causes a pilot to lose his ability to make a forced landing “deadstick” if necessary.
    • 2016, Roger Wilkins, “Australia’s economic wellbeing is at a standstill as rift between young and old widens,” The Guardian, 20 July, 2016,
      Poverty in Australia has declined, welfare reliance has stabilised and long-term poverty is becoming rare—but overall economic wellbeing is no longer improving […]
  3. (dated) Anything on which to rely; ground of trust.
    The boat was a poor reliance.
    • 1593, Thomas Nashe, Christs Teares ouer Ierusalem, London: Thomas Thorp, 1613, p. 69,
      Thou wert once the chiefe pillar of my posterity, and the whole reliance of my name:
    • 1656, Robert Sanderson (theologian), Twenty Sermons, London: Henry Seile, Sermon 14, p. 280,
      A horse is counted but a vain thing, […] to save a man. So are Chariots, and Forts, and Armies, and Navies, and all earthly reliances.
    • 1742, Samuel Richardson, Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded, London: for the author, Volume 3, Letter 32, p. 286,
      Mr. Adams may marry as well as Mr. Williams; and both, I believe, will find God’s Providence a better Reliance, than the richest Benefice in England.
    • 1914, Stephen Leacock, Adventurers of the Far North, Toronto: Glasgow, Brook, Chapter 5, p. 123,
      Most ominous of all was the discovery of over six hundred empty cans that had held preserved meat, the main reliance of the expedition.
  4. A person or thing which relies on another.
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