reliance

• relyance (obsolete)

rely +‎ -ance

• IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈlaɪəns/
• Rhymes: -aɪəns

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reliance (countable and uncountable, plural reliances)

1. The act of relying (on or in someone or something); trust.

   Your reliance on his expertise may be misplaced.

   • c. 1607, William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens, Act II, Scene 1,

     […] his days and times are past

     And my reliances on his fracted [i.e. broken] dates

     Have smit my credit:

   • 1752, Charlotte Lennox, The Female Quixote, London: A. Millar, Volume 2, Book 9, Chapter 9, p. 288,

     How unfavourable is Chance, said Arabella fretting at the Disappointment, to Persons who have any Reliance upon it!

   • 1867, Thomas Babington Macaulay, “Samuel Johnson” in Biographical and Historical Sketches, New York: Appleton, p. 54,

     It was out of his power to support his son at either university; but a wealthy neighbor offered assistance; and, in reliance on promises which proved to be of very little value, Samuel was entered at Pembroke College, Oxford.

   • 1912, W. Somerset Maugham, Mrs. Dot, London: Heinemann, Act 2, p. 89,

     I put infinite reliance in your tact.

   • 1962, C. S. Forester, Hornblower and the Hotspur, London: Michael, Joseph, Chapter 3,

     Hornblower could see in a flash that he could place implicit reliance on Bush’s seamanship.

2. The condition of being reliant or dependent.

   The industry is working to phase out its reliance on fossil fuels.

   • 1933, “‘Rumbling’ & ‘Goosing’,” Time, 25 September, 1933,

     […] he contended that habitual reliance on engine power causes a pilot to lose his ability to make a forced landing “deadstick” if necessary.

   • 2016, Roger Wilkins, “Australia’s economic wellbeing is at a standstill as rift between young and old widens,” The Guardian, 20 July, 2016,

     Poverty in Australia has declined, welfare reliance has stabilised and long-term poverty is becoming rare—but overall economic wellbeing is no longer improving […]

3. (dated) Anything on which to rely; ground of trust.

   The boat was a poor reliance.

   • 1593, Thomas Nashe, Christs Teares ouer Ierusalem, London: Thomas Thorp, 1613, p. 69,

     Thou wert once the chiefe pillar of my posterity, and the whole reliance of my name:

   • 1656, Robertson Sanderson, Twenty Sermons, London: Henry Seile, Sermon 14, p. 280,

     A horse is counted but a vain thing, […] to save a man. So are Chariots, and Forts, and Armies, and Navies, and all earthly reliances.

   • 1742, Samuel Richardson, Pamela, London: for the author, Volume 3, Letter 32, p. 286,

     Mr. Adams may marry as well as Mr. Williams; and both, I believe, will find God’s Providence a better Reliance, than the richest Benefice in England.

   • 1914, Stephen Leacock, Adventurers of the Far North, Toronto: Glasgow, Brook, Chapter 5, p. 123,

     Most ominous of all was the discovery of over six hundred empty cans that had held preserved meat, the main reliance of the expedition.

4. A person or thing which relies on another. (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought):

• overreliance
• self-reliance

• careline, cerealin, cinereal