The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Release \Re*lease"\ (r?-l?s"), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Released
   (r?*l?st"); p. pr. & vb. n. Releasing.] [OE. relessen, OF.
   relassier, to release, to let free. See Relay, n., Relax,
   and cf. Release to lease again.]
   1. To let loose again; to set free from restraint,
      confinement, or servitude; to give liberty to, or to set
      at liberty; to let go.
      [1913 Webster]

            Now at that feast he released unto them one
            prisoner, whomsoever they desired.    --Mark xv. 6.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To relieve from something that confines, burdens, or
      oppresses, as from pain, trouble, obligation, penalty.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. (Law) To let go, as a legal claim; to discharge or
      relinquish a right to, as lands or tenements, by conveying
      to another who has some right or estate in possession, as
      when the person in remainder releases his right to the
      tenant in possession; to quit.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. To loosen; to relax; to remove the obligation of; as, to
      release an ordinance. [Obs.] --Hooker.
      [1913 Webster]

            A sacred vow that none should aye release.
                                                  --Spenser.
      [1913 Webster]

   Syn: To free; liberate; loose; discharge; disengage;
        extricate; let go; quit; acquit.
        [1913 Webster]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

112 Moby Thesaurus words for "released":
   abandoned, abjured, afoot and lighthearted, asleep,
   asleep in Jesus, at large, at liberty, at rest, bereft of life,
   breathless, called home, carrion, ceded, chartered, clear, croaked,
   dead, dead and gone, death-struck, deceased, defunct, delivered,
   demised, departed, departed this life, destitute of life, detached,
   disengaged, dispensed with, disposed of, done for, easygoing,
   emancipated, exanimate, excepted, excused, exempt, exempted,
   extricated, fallen, favored, finished, food for worms, footloose,
   footloose and fancy-free, forgone, forsworn, free, free and easy,
   free as air, freeborn, freed, go-as-you-please, gone,
   gone to glory, gone west, immune, in the clear, inanimate,
   irresponsible, late, late lamented, launched into eternity,
   let off, liberated, licensed, lifeless, loose, martyred, no more,
   on parole, on the loose, passed on, permitted, privileged,
   pushing up daisies, recanted, redeemed, relinquished, renounced,
   reposing, rescued, resting easy, retracted, sacrificed, sainted,
   scot-free, sleeping, smitten with death, spared, still, stillborn,
   surrendered, taken away, taken off, unaccountable, unanswerable,
   unattached, unbound, uncommitted, unengaged, uninvolved, unliable,
   unshackled, unsubject, untied, waived, with the Lord,
   with the saints, without life, without vital functions, yielded