Rze·szów (zh??sho?of?) A city of southeast Poland east of Kraków. Chartered in the 1300s, it passed to Austria in 1772 and reverted to Poland after World War I.American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.