deliverance

/dəˈlɪvərɪns/

/dəˈlɪvərɪns/

Other forms: deliverances

If you’re seeking deliverance, you want to be set free or removed from a bad situation. If you're taken hostage in a bank heist, you might pray for deliverance.

You probably notice that deliver makes up a big chunk of deliverance. One meaning of deliver is “to set free” — and that’s what deliverance is: the act of setting someone free. Deliverance often has religious connotations, but the word can be used for other kinds of rescue or liberation. You might want deliverance from the hardship of working on your uncle’s farm all summer, or at least deliverance from the smell of manure.

Definitions of deliverance

1. noun

   recovery or preservation from loss or danger
   “work is the deliverance of mankind”

   synonyms: delivery, rescue, saving

   types:

   lifesaving

   saving the lives of drowning persons

   redemption, salvation

   (theology) the act of delivering from sin or saving from evil

   reclamation, reformation

   rescuing from error and returning to a rightful course

   salvage

   the act of rescuing a ship or its crew or its cargo from a shipwreck or a fire

   salvage

   the act of saving goods or property that were in danger of damage or destruction

   salvation

   saving someone or something from harm or from an unpleasant situation

   search and rescue mission

   a rescue mission to search for survivors and to rescue them

   absolution, remission, remission of sin, remittal

   the act of absolving or remitting; formal redemption as pronounced by a priest in the sacrament of penance

   conversion, rebirth, spiritual rebirth

   a spiritual enlightenment causing a person to lead a new life

   atonement, expiation, propitiation

   the act of atoning for sin or wrongdoing (especially appeasing a deity)

   type of:

   recovery, retrieval

   the act of regaining or saving something lost (or in danger of becoming lost)