Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Relation \Re*la"tion\ (r?-l?"sh?n), n. [F. relation, L. relatio.
   See {Relate}.]
   1. The act of relating or telling; also, that which is
      related; recital; account; narration; narrative; as, the
      relation of historical events.

            ??????oet's relation doth well figure them. --Bacon.

   2. The state of being related or of referring; what is
      apprehended as appertaining to a being or quality, by
      considering it in its bearing upon something else;
      relative quality or condition; the being such and such
      with regard or respect to some other thing; connection;
      as, the relation of experience to knowledge; the relation
      of master to servant.

            Any sort of connection which is perceived or
            imagined between two or more things, or any
            comparison which is made by the mind, is a relation.
                                                  --I. Taylor.

   3. Reference; respect; regard.

            I have been importuned to make some observations on
            this art in relation to its agreement with poetry.
                                                  --Dryden.

   4. Connection by consanguinity or affinity; kinship;
      relationship; as, the relation of parents and children.

            Relations dear, and all the charities Of father,
            son, and brother, first were known.   --Milton.

   5. A person connected by cosanguinity or affinity; a
      relative; a kinsman or kinswoman.

            For me . . . my relation does not care a rush. --Ld.
                                                  Lytton.

   6. (Law)
      (a) The carrying back, and giving effect or operation to,
          an act or proceeding frrom some previous date or time,
          by a sort of fiction, as if it had happened or begun
          at that time. In such case the act is said to take
          effect by relation.
      (b) The act of a relator at whose instance a suit is
          begun. --Wharton. Burrill.

   Syn: Recital; rehearsal; narration; account; narrative; tale;
        detail; description; kindred; kinship; consanguinity;
        affinity; kinsman; kinswoman.

Source : WordNet®

relation
     n 1: an abstraction belonging to or characteristic of two
          entities or parts together
     2: the act of sexual procreation between a man and a woman; the
        man's penis is inserted into the woman's vagina and
        excited until orgasm and ejaculation occur [syn: {sexual
        intercourse}, {intercourse}, {sex act}, {copulation}, {coitus},
         {coition}, {sexual congress}, {congress}, {sexual
        relation}, {carnal knowledge}]
     3: a person related by blood or marriage; "police are searching
        for relatives of the deceased"; "he has distant relations
        back in New Jersey" [syn: {relative}]
     4: an act of narration; "he was the hero according to his own
        relation"; "his endless recounting of the incident
        eventually became unbearable" [syn: {telling}, {recounting}]
     5: (law) the principle that an act done at a later time is
        deemed by law to have occurred at an earlier time; "his
        attorney argued for the relation back of the ammended
        complaint to the time the initial complaint was filed"
        [syn: {relation back}]
     6: (usually plural) mutual dealings or connections among
        persons or groups; "international relations"

Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

relation
     
        1.  A subset of the {product} of two sets, R : A
        x B.  If (a, b) is an element of R then we write a R b,
        meaning a is related to b by R.  A relation may be:
        {reflexive} (a R a), {symmetric} (a R b => b R a),
        {transitive} (a R b & b R c => a R c), {antisymmetric} (a R b
        & b R a => a = b) or {total} (a R b or b R a).
     
        See {equivalence relation}, {partial ordering}, {pre-order},
        {total ordering}.
     
        2.  A {table} in a {relational database}.
     
        (1995-02-28)