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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

2 entries under this word

Rescue

Rĕs'cue, v. t.

verbtransitive

[imp. & p. p. RESCUED; p. pr. & vb. n. RESCUING.] [O. Fr. rescourre, rescourre, rescurre, rescorre, Pr. rescodre, It. riscuotere, from Lat. re, again, back, and excutere, to shake or drive out, from ex, out, and quatere, to shake.] To free or deliver from any confinement, violence, danger, or evil; to liberate from actual restraint, or to remove or withdraw from a state of exposure to evil; as, to rescue a prisoner from an officer; to rescue seamen from destruction by shipwreck.

Had I been seized by a hungry lion, I would have been a breakfast for the beast, Rather than have false Proteus rescue me. Shak.

Synonyms—To retake; recapture; free; deliver; liberate; save.

Rēs'cue, n.

noun

n. [See the verb, and cf. RESCOUS.] 1. The act of rescuing; deliverance from restraint, violence, or danger, by force, or by the interference of an agent. Spur to the rescue of the noble king. Shak. 2. (Law.) The forcible retaking, or taking away, against law, of things lawfully distrained; also, the forcible liberation of a person from an arrest or imprisonment; 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.