relied

Meanings

1. 1verbintransitive

   Past tense and past participle of rely: needed or trusted someone or something to supply help or support.

   Grammar: Always followed by on or upon: she relied on her friends.

   Patterns

   • relied on someone
   • relied on something
   • relied upon someone

   The village relied on a single well for water.

   She relied on her brother to drive her to work.

   We had relied on the forecast, so we left the umbrellas at home.

2. 2verbintransitive

   Past tense of rely: believed with confidence that something would happen or be true.

   Grammar: Often followed by on plus an -ing form or a noun.

   Patterns

   • relied on someone to do something
   • relied on something being true

   He relied on her promise to arrive early.

   They relied on the bridge being open.

   I relied on you keeping the secret.

Word forms

Common combinations

relied heavily on

The team relied heavily on volunteers.

relied solely on

He relied solely on his memory.

relied on luck

They relied on luck to find the way.

relied upon

The advice was relied upon by many.

had always relied on

She had always relied on her mother for advice.

Synonyms and how they differ

depended

Depended is similar but takes on and also appears with whether, while relied expresses trust.

counted

Counted on is more casual, and suggests expecting something to happen.

leaned

Leaned on suggests using someone for emotional support.

trusted

Trusted can take a direct object and speaks of belief in honesty.

Opposites

Word family

rely verb

base form: to depend on

reliable adjective

able to be trusted

reliance noun

dependence on someone or something

reliability noun

the quality of being trustworthy

reliant adjective

depending on something

Commonly confused: relied or replied?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “relied”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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