Dictionary entry

Deliverance

Webster's Dictionary 1913

De‐liv″er‐ance (?), n. [F. délivrance, fr. délivrer.] 1. The act of delivering or freeing from restraint, captivity, peril, and the like; rescue; as, the deliverance of a captive.

He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives. Luke iv. 18.

One death or one deliverance we will share. Dryden.

2. Act of bringing forth children. Shak.

3. Act of speaking; utterance. Shak.

☞ In this and in the preceding sense delivery is the word more commonly used.

4. The state of being delivered, or freed from restraint.

I do desire deliverance from these officers. Shak.

5. Anything delivered or communicated; esp., an opinion or decision expressed publicly.

6. (Metaph.) Any fact or truth which is decisively attested or intuitively known as a psychological or philosophical datum; as, the deliverance of consciousness.