rescue

rescue vb Rescue, deliver, redeem, ransom, reclaim, save are comparable when they mean to free a person or thing from confinement, danger of death or destruction, or a serious evil.

One rescues a person who is in imminent danger (as of death, of capture, or of assault) by prompt or vigorous action

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we are beset with thieves; rescue thy mistress— Shak.

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rescue the crew of a sinking ship

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rescue the perishing, care for the dying, snatch them in pity from sin and the grave— Crosby}}

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Less often one rescues a thing that is in danger of destruction, or that has been forcibly seized, by freeing it from danger or from its captors

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diamonds that I rescued from the tarn— Tennyson

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a main object of his teaching to rescue the idea of justice from identification with the special interest of the strong— Dickinson

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One delivers a person by setting him free from something (as prison, confinement, suffering, temptation, or embarrassment)

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lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil—Mr 6:13

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to deliver mankind from the paralyzing grip of determinism— Inge

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the population of Russia had only just been delivered, nominally at least, from serfdom— Ellisy

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One redeems a person from bondage, from captivity, or from suffering the consequences of his sin or crime, or a thing from pawn or from neglect, deterioration, or decay by making some commensurate expenditure (as of money, of effort, or of time)

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let me redeem my brothers both from death— Shak.

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a plot of land redeemed from the heath, and after long and laborious years brought into cultivation— Hardy

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labored for eighty years, redeeming them to Christianity— Norman Douglas

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One ransoms a person who has been captured, enslaved, or kidnapped by paying the amount that is demanded by his captor or owner

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he was back in Quebec with a number of Iroquois captives whom he had ransomed— Wynney

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Ransom is often employed in place of redeem in religious use, especially in reference to Christ as the Redeemer, when the emphasis is on the price he paid in accepting crucifixion

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his brethren, ransomed with his own dear life— Milton

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One reclaims what has become debased, wild, savage, waste, or desert by bringing it back to its former state of usefulness. Specifically one reclaims a person who has wandered from rectitude or has become a sinner, a reprobate, or a degenerate when one reforms him or restores him to moral, decent ways of life

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I fear he is not to be reclaimed; there is scarcely a hope that anything in his character or fortunes is reparable now— Dickens

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or one reclaims a thing that has been abandoned or neglected when one works with it so that it becomes productive or finds a new use or is made to give up what is still usable in it

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reclaim long-abandoned farms

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filled in valleys, diverted creeks and reclaimed swamps—G. R. Gilbert

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reclaim discarded wool

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One saves (see also SAVE 2) a person when one rescues, delivers, redeems, ransoms, or reclaims him and enables him not only to be free from the evil that involves or threatens but to continue in existence, to enjoy security or happiness, or to be of future use or service

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his life was saved by an operation

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the lifeguard saved him from drowning

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the book he had written himself, the Navigator, had saved countless lives— Brooks

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Analogous words: *free, release, liberate, emancipate, manumit: preserve, conserve (see SAVE): *extricate, disentangle, disembarrass