rescue Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun recovery or preservation from loss or danger
    delivery; saving; deliverance.
    • work is the deliverance of mankind
    • a surgeon's job is the saving of lives
  2. verb free from harm or evil
    deliver.
  3. verb take forcibly from legal custody
    • rescue prisoners

WordNet

Res"cue transitive verb
Etymology
OE. rescopuen, OF. rescourre, rescurre, rescorre; L. pref. re- re- + excutere to shake or drive out; ex out + quatere to shake. See Qtash to crush, Rercussion.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Rescued present participle & verbal noun Rescuing
Definitions
  1. To free or deliver from any confinement, violence, danger, or evil; to liberate from actual restraint; to remove or withdraw from a state of exposure to evil; as, to rescue a prisoner from the enemy; to rescue seamen from destruction.
    Had I been seized by a hungry lion, I would have been a breakfast to the best, Rather than have false Proteus rescue me. Shak.
    Syn. -- To retake; recapture; free; deliver; liberate; release; save.
Res"cue noun
Etymology
From Rescue, v.; cf. Rescous.
Definitions
  1. The act of rescuing; deliverance from restraint, violence, or danger; liberation.
    Spur to the rescue of the noble Talbot. Shak.
  2. (Law) (a) The forcible retaking, or taking away, against law, of things lawfully distrained. (b) The forcible liberation of a person from an arrest or imprisonment. (c) The retaking by a party captured of a prize made by the enemy. Bouvier.
    The rescue of a prisoner from the court is punished with perpetual imprisonment and forfeiture of goods. Blackstone.

Webster 1913