relent

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Generally in about a week's time Ma would relent, and, as our cook was fond of me, I'd be reinstated in my beloved realm of eats.

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Definitions (16)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. intransitive verb To become more lenient, compassionate, or forgiving. See Synonyms at yield.
  2. transitive verb Obsolete To cause to slacken or abate.
  3. transitive verb Obsolete To cause to soften in attitude or temper.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (9)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

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Examples (50)

  • Pity thine allies; relent, and retire before thy conqueror. —  The Aeneid of Virgil
  • The chances were that a little persuasion would have induced the farmer to relent, and permit the boys to remain where they were until morning But Randy's unfortunate temper blazed up just then, and made a breach that was too wide to be healed It's a confounded shame to turn us off at this time of night," he muttered angrily. —  Canoe Boys and Campfires Adventures on Winding Waters
  • The will, that never can relent-- The aim, survivor of the bafflement Make this memorial due AN UNINSCRIBED MONUMENT On one of the Battle-fields of the Wilderness Silence and solitude may hint Whose home is in yon piney wood) What I, though tableted, could never tell-- The din which here befell And striving of the multitude. —  John Marr and Other Poems
  • She would rather people should say of her boy that he married a milliner's daughter than that he was hung, and hurrying to the window just as Ben looked back, hoping for a signal, she waved her hand for him to return, calling out at the top of her voice, "I relent--I relent." —  Rosamond — or, the Youthful Error
  • But Dad doesn't relent--Dad's going to die and leave his money to a Home for Cats! —  The Pot Boiler
 

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same contextWord Family

relent:   relented ·  relenting
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English relenten, to melt, from Anglo-Norman relenter, from relent, damp : Latin re-, re- + Latin lentus, sticky, slow.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English relenten, from Old French ralentir, rallentir, slacken, relent, French ralentir =Portuguese relentar (cf. Spanish relentecer, soften, relent, from Latin relentescere, slacken) =Italian rallentare, from Latin re-, back, + lentus, slow, slack, tenacious, pliant; akin to lenis, gentle, and English lithe: see lenient.
  2. from relent, v.
 

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/rəˈlɛnt/
by American Heritage

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