slacken

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“
And now I think the train begins to slacken, and it is the next station at which we get out. "

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Definitions (15)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. transitive and intransitive verb To make or become slower; slow down: The runners slackened their pace. Air speed slackened.
  2. transitive and intransitive verb To make or become less tense, taut, or firm; loosen: I slackened the line to let the fish swim. The tension in the board room finally slackened.
  3. transitive and intransitive verb To make or become less vigorous, intense, or severe; ease: slacken discipline; afraid that morale might slacken.

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Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (50)

  • At the end of this time the firing of the mountaineers began to slacken, as their ammunition was running low. —  The Life and Adventures of Kit Carson
  • When the rains began to slacken, a petty caravan now and then straggled towards the coast; but, as I was only a new comer in the region, and not possessed of abundant means, I enjoyed a slender share of the trade. —  The Project Gutenberg eBook of Captain Canot, or Twenty Years of an African Slaver, by Brantz Mayer and Theodore Canot.
  • Perhaps by September things would slacken, they would say. —  F ;SF - vol 089 issue 02 - August 1995
  • If Chinese exports slacken, and factories close, and workers have no jobs, the Chinese government faces an explosion. —  Spero News
  • Obama's popularity will slacken, they say, and even if it doesn't voters will reward a party that makes principled stands for restrained spending and bigger tax cuts. —  Top Stories - Google News
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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

slacken:   slackened ·  slackening
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 (1)

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English *slaknen, sleknen (=Icelandic slakna); from slack + -en.
 

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/ˈslækn/
by American Heritage

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