rescue

tr.v., -cued, -cu·ing, -cues.

1. To set free, as from danger or imprisonment; save. See synonyms at save¹.
2. Law. To take from legal custody by force.

n.

1. An act of rescuing; a deliverance.
2. Law. Removal from legal custody by force.

[Middle English rescouen, from Old French rescourre : re-, re- + escourre, to shake (from Latin excutere : ex-, ex- + quatere, to shake).]

rescuable res'cu·a·ble adj.
rescuer res'cu·er n.

verb

1. To extricate, as from danger or confinement: deliver, save. Idioms: come to the rescue of. See help/harm/harmless.
2. To extricate from an undesirable state: reclaim, recover, redeem, salvage. See help/harm/harmless.

noun

Extrication from danger or confinement: deliverance, delivery, salvage, salvation. See help/harm/harmless.

n

Definition: saving from danger
Antonyms: abandonment, danger, peril

v

Definition: save from danger
Antonyms: abandon, endanger, harm, hurt, imperil, injure

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Project aimed at salvaging historic structures in gross disrepair.

Bibliography

• Lady Freeman

The full bibliography for this book is available to download as a pdf file.
Download the bibliography for A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (PDF: 1.2MB)

This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.

The crime of forcibly and knowingly freeing another from arrest, imprisonment, or legal custody.

In admiralty and maritime law, the taking back of property seized as prize from the possession of the captors by the party who originally lost it.

At common law, the crime of rescue involved illegally freeing a prisoner. From the nineteenth century onward, such crimes became romanticized in the popular entertainment of Westerns and crime dramas, where prisoners were freed from jail by their criminal associates. Today, this form of rescue is an offense under federal law. Some states treat it as a common-law offense, whereas others define it under statute. In a different legal sense, rescue under admiralty and maritime law means the taking back of goods that have been captured at sea.

The crime of rescue has four elements. First, the arrest of a prisoner must be lawful. Second, the prisoner must be in actual custody, that is, in the personal custody of an officer or in a prison or jail. Third, at common law and under some statutes, the rescue must be forcibly made. Fourth, the prisoner must actually escape. At common law, the person guilty of rescue is guilty of the same grade of offense, whether felony or misdemeanor, as the person who is rescued.

Under federal law, rescue of a prisoner held in federal custody is a felony. As defined by 18 U.S.C.A. § 752 (1994), rescue is the crime of instigating or assisting escape from lawful custody. The law takes its punishment provisions from the federal statute (18 U.S.C.A. § 751 [1994]) that makes it unlawful for a prisoner to escape from a place of confinement: conviction carries fines of up to $5,000 and imprisonment of up to five years for the rescue of an adult, and equivalent fines and imprisonment of up to a year for the rescue of a minor. Thus, like the common-law definition, the same punishment applies to a person aiding an escape as that given to the person escaping.

Criminal cases involving rescue can be dramatic. In the 1933 case of Merrill v. State, 42 Ariz. 341, 26 P.2d 110, Herbert Merrill appealed his conviction for attempting to rescue Albert De Raey from the Maricopa County, Arizona, jail. On January 10, 1933, Merrill brought acid to the jail at De Raey's request so that De Raey could use it to cut through the bars on his jail cell. Merrill was subsequently convicted of attempting to rescue under section 4537 of Arizona's Revised Code of 1928. On appeal, however, the appellate court reversed the conviction: it found that although Merrill had apparently assisted in an escape attempt, he had not forcibly attempted to effect a rescue. Thus he had been improperly charged, the conviction could not stand, and the case was sent back to the lower court.

In 1989 a California case raised the issue of when rescue is defensible. On November 5, 1986, Ronald J. McIntosh landed a helicopter on the grounds of the Federal Correctional Institution at Pleasanton, California, and then flew off with his girlfriend, Samantha D. Lopez, who was being held as a prisoner there. McIntosh was later convicted of aiding Lopez's escape and two other felonies; Lopez was convicted of escape. In a joint appeal, they alleged that their offenses were necessary to save Lopez's life because she had been threatened by prison officials and was in immediate danger (United States v. Lopez, 885 F.2d 1428 [9th C.C.A. 1989]). In fact, such a defense — called a necessity defense — can excuse the otherwise criminal act of escape. The appeal alleged that the trial court had improperly instructed the jury as to the availability of this defense to both defendants. However, in upholding their convictions, the appellate court found that the trial judge committed no error in the instructions with respect to Lopez, and only a harmless error where McIntosh was concerned.

Under admiralty and maritime law, rescue has another definition entirely. It means recovering goods that have been forcibly taken by one vessel from another. The property in question is referred to as a prize, and its rescue may be effected by reclaiming the property with force or by escaping. Generally, such actions occur when two belligerent powers clash, either in a limited dispute or at war.

IN BRIEF: To save from danger..

The individual woman is required . . . a thousand times a day to choose either to accept her appointed role and thereby rescue her good disposition out of the wreckage of her self-respect, or else follow an independent line of behavior and rescue her self — Jeannette Rankin (1880-1973)

Being rescued from a pursuing animal, a potential drowning, etc. often indicates the dreamer needs to rescue themselves from a disturbing or even a potentially threatening situation that they are experiencing in their business or in their personal life.

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Dansk (Danish)
v. tr. - redde, bjerge, undsætte
n. - redning, undsætning, bjergning

idioms:

• come to someone's rescue    redde, komme til undsætning
• go to someone's rescue    redde, komme til undsætning

Nederlands (Dutch)
redden, redding iemand te hulp komen

Français (French)
v. tr. - porter secours à, venir à l'aide de, libérer, sauver, éviter la fermeture de, récupérer
n. - secours, sauvetage, service de secours

idioms:

• come to someone's rescue    venir au secours de qn
• go to someone's rescue    aller au secours de qn

Deutsch (German)
n. - Rettung, Befreiung
v. - retten, befreien

idioms:

• come to someone's rescue    jmdm. zur Hilfe kommen
• go to someone's rescue    jmdm. zur Hilfe kommen

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - διάσωση, σώσιμο, γλιτωμός, απαλλαγή, (απο)λύτρωση
v. - διασώζω, γλιτώνω, σώζω, απαλλάσσω, (απο)λυτρώνω

idioms:

• come to someone's rescue    έρχομαι αρωγός, σπεύδω σε βοήθεια κάποιου
• go to someone's rescue    σπεύδω σε βοήθεια κάποιου

Italiano (Italian)
salvare, salvataggio

idioms:

• go/come to someone's rescue    soccorrere qualcuno

Português (Portuguese)
n. - salvamento (m), resgate (m)
v. - resgatar, auxiliar

idioms:

• go/come to someone's rescue    ajudar alguém

Русский (Russian)
спасать, спасение

idioms:

• go/come to someone's rescue    прийти кому-либо на помощь

Español (Spanish)
v. tr. - rescatar, salvar
n. - rescate, socorro

idioms:

• come to someone's rescue    venir en socorro de alguien
• go to someone's rescue    ir en socorro de alguien

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - räddning, befrielse, bärgning
v. - rädda, undsätta, befria

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
援救, 营救, 救出, 解救

idioms:

• come to someone's rescue    救援某人
• go to someone's rescue    救援某人

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
v. tr. - 援救, 營救, 救出
n. - 援救, 營救, 解救

idioms:

• come to someone's rescue    救援某人
• go to someone's rescue    救援某人

한국어 (Korean)
v. tr. - 구출하다, 불법으로 탈환하다, 탈주 시키다
n. - 구출 , 불법 석방

idioms:

• come to someone's rescue    구조하다
• go to someone's rescue    원조하다

日本語 (Japanese)
v. - 釈放する, 救う, 奪い返す, 奪還する, 救助する
n. - 救出, 奪還

idioms:

• go/come to someone's rescue    救援に行く

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) انقاذ (فعل) ينقذ يأتي لنجدة أحد يذهب لنجدة أحد‏

עברית (Hebrew)
v. tr. - ‮הציל‬
n. - ‮הצלה‬

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