rest#

rest n Rest, repose, relaxation, leisure, ease, comfort are comparable when they mean freedom from toil or strain.

Rest, the most general term, implies withdrawal from all labor or exertion and suggests an opposition to the term work; it does not in itself explicitly imply a particular way of spending one's time, but it does suggest as an aim or as a result the overcoming of physical or mental weariness

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there the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest— Job 3:17

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night came, and with it but little rest— Hardy

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there was rest now, not disquietude, in the knowledge— Glasgow

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Repose implies freedom from motion or movement and suggests not only physical quiet (as in sleeping or slumbering) but also mental quiet and freedom from anything that disturbs, annoys, agitates, or confuses. Typically the term suggests tranquillity or peace or the refreshment that comes from complete quiet or rest

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heavily passed the night. Sleep, or repose that deserved the name of sleep, was out of the question— Austen

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eighteen years of commotion had made the majority of the people ready to buy repose at any price— Macaulay

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walls . . . that shut out the world and gave repose to the spirit— Cather

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Relaxation may imply rest that comes from diversion or recreation but it usually stresses either a releasing of the tension that keeps muscles taut and fit for work or the mind keyed up to the processes of clear and prolonged thinking, or a physical and mental slackening that finally induces repose

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those who wish relaxation from analysis . . . the tired scientist, and the fagged philologist and the weary man of business— Babbitt

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now and then came relaxation and lassitude, but never release. The war towered over him like a vigilant teacher— H. G. Wells

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found relaxation in her unobtrusive company— Shirer

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Leisure implies exemption from the labor imposed upon one by a trade or profession or by duties; it may apply to the hours in which one is not engaged in one's daily work, or to the period in which one is on vacation, or to the entire time of a person who is not compelled to earn his living

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have little leisure for reading

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he looked forward to the prospect of a full month of leisure

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those who lead lives of leisure

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Leisure, therefore, stresses freedom from compulsion, or routine, or continuous work; it usually suggests not freedom from activity but the freedom to determine one's activities

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labor is doing what we must; leisure is doing what we like; rest is doing nothing whilst our bodies and minds are recovering from their fatigue— Shaw

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Ease (see also READINESS) stresses exemption from toil, but it also implies a freedom from whatever worries or disturbs and from what demands physical or mental activity. In contrast to leisure it implies rest and repose; in addition it suggests either complete relaxation of mind and body or a state of mind that finds no attraction in work or activity

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all day I sit in idleness, while to and fro about me thy serene, grave servants go; and I am weary of my lonely ease— Millay

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But ease may also imply absence of strain, especially mental or nervous strain, rather than freedom from toil

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not only devoted, but resourceful and intelligent, one who would be at his ease with all sorts of men— Cather

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Comfort differs from the other words of this group in carrying little if any suggestion of freedom from toil; it applies rather to a state of mind induced by relief from all that strains or inconveniences or causes pain, disquiet, or discontent. Positively it suggests perfect well- being and a feeling of quiet enjoyment or content

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he had bought for himself out of all the wealth streaming through his fingers neither adulation nor love, neither splendor nor comfort— Conrad

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this sudden calm and the sense of comfort that it brought created a more genial atmosphere over the whole ship— Dahl

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spent every dollar he earned on the comfort of his family— Wouk

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Analogous words: intermitting or intermission, suspending or suspension, deferring (see corresponding verbs at DEFER): stillness, quietness or quiet, silentness or silence (see corresponding adjectives at STILL): calmness or calm, tranquillity, serenity (see corresponding adjectives at CALM)

rest vb *base, found, ground, bottom, stay

Analogous words: *depend, hang, hinge: *rely, depend, count

rest n *remainder, residue, residuum, remains, leavings, balance, remnant

Analogous words: *excess, superfluity, surplus, surplusage, overplus