reliance
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɹɪˈlaɪ.əns/
rhymes: -aɪəns
Forms: form: reliances
form: relyance
Etymology: From rely + -ance.
Senses: examples: text: Your reliance on his expertise may be misplaced.
text: […] his days and times are past
And my reliances on his fracted [i.e. broken] dates
Have smit my credit:
ref: c. 1605–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
text: How unfavourable is Chance, said Arabella fretting at the Disappointment, to Persons who have any Reliance upon it!
ref: 1752, Charlotte Lennox, The Female Quixote, London: A. Millar, Volume 2, Book 9, Chapter 9, p. 288:
text: 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.
ref: 1867, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “Samuel Johnson”, in Biographical and Historical Sketches, New York: Appleton, page 54:
text: I put infinite reliance in your tact.
ref: 1912, W. Somerset Maugham, Mrs. Dot, London: Heinemann, act 2, page 89:
text: Hornblower could see in a flash that he could place implicit reliance on Bush’s seamanship.
ref: 1962, C. S. Forester, chapter 3, in Hornblower and the Hotspur, London: Michael, Joseph:
glosses: The act of relying (on or in someone or something); trust.
examples: text: The industry is working to phase out its reliance on fossil fuels.
text: […] he contended that habitual reliance on engine power causes a pilot to lose his ability to make a forced landing “deadstick” if necessary.
ref: 1933 September 25, “‘Rumbling’ & ‘Goosing’”, in Time:
text: Poverty in Australia has declined, welfare reliance has stabilised and long-term poverty is becoming rare—but overall economic wellbeing is no longer improving […]
ref: 2016 July 20, Roger Wilkins, “Australia’s economic wellbeing is at a standstill as rift between young and old widens”, in The Guardian:
glosses: The condition of being reliant or dependent.
examples: text: The boat was a poor reliance.
text: Thou wert once the chiefe pillar of my posterity, and the whole reliance of my name:
ref: 1593, Thomas Nashe, Christs Teares ouer Ierusalem, London: Thomas Thorp, published 1613, page 69:
text: 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.
ref: 1656, Robertson Sanderson, Twenty Sermons, London: Henry Seile, Sermon 14, p. 280:
text: 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.
ref: 1741, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XXXII”, in Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: […] C[harles] Rivington, […]; and J. Osborn, […], →OCLC, page 286:
text: Most ominous of all was the discovery of over six hundred empty cans that had held preserved meat, the main reliance of the expedition.
ref: 1914, Stephen Leacock, chapter 5, in Adventurers of the Far North, Toronto: Glasgow, Brook, page 123:
glosses: Anything on which to rely; ground of trust.
glosses: A person or thing which relies on another.
Derived terms: engendered reliance
overreliance
over-reliance
self-reliance
reliance interest