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  1. slake love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To satisfy (a craving); quench: slaked her thirst.
  2. v. To lessen the force or activity of; moderate: slaking his anger.
  3. v. To cool or refresh by wetting or moistening.
  4. v. To combine (lime) chemically with water or moist air.
  5. v. To undergo a slaking process; crumble or disintegrate, as lime.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To become slack; loosen; slacken; fall off.
  2. To be lax, remiss, or negligent.
  3. To become less strong, active, energetic, severe, intense, or the like; abate; decrease; fail; cease.
  4. To desist; give over: fall short.
  5. To become disintegrated and loosened by the action of water; become chemically combined with water: as, the lime slakes.
  6. To make slack or slow; slow; slacken.
  7. To make slack or loose; render less tense, firm, or compact; slacken. Specifically
  8. To loosen or disintegrate; reduce to powder by the action of water: as, to slake lime. Also slack.
  9. To let loose; release.
  10. To make slack or inactive; hence, to quench or extinguish, as fire, appease or assuage, as hunger or thirst, or mollify, as hatred: as, to slake one's hunger or thirst; to slake wrath.
  11. n. A channel through a swamp or mud-flat.
  12. n. Slime or mud.
  13. To besmear; daub.
  14. n. A slovenly or slabbery daub; a slight dabbing or bedaubing as with something soft and slabbery; a “lick.”
  15. n. A name of various species of Algæ, chiefly marine and of the edible sorts, as Ulva Lactuca, U. latissima, and Porphyra laciniata: applied also to fresh-water species, as Enteromorpha and perhaps Conferva.

Wiktionary

  1. v. intransitive, obsolete To go out; to become extinct.
  2. v. intransitive To become mixed with water, so that a true chemical combination takes place.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. To allay; to quench; to extinguish.
  2. v. To mix with water, so that a true chemical combination shall take place; to slack.
  3. v. To go out; to become extinct.
  4. v. rare To abate; to become less decided.
  5. v. rare, rare To slacken; to become relaxed.
  6. v. To become mixed with water, so that a true chemical combination takes place.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. make less active or intense
  2. v. cause to heat and crumble by treatment with water
  3. v. satisfy (thirst)

Etymologies

  1. From Middle English slaken ("to render slack, to slake"), from Old English sleacian, from sleac ("slack"). (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English slaken, to abate, from Old English slacian, from slæc, slack, sluggish; see slack1. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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Lists

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Comments

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  • taylorelaine Barbossa says this when he tells Elizabeth of the curse "...could not slake our lust..." Oct 26, 2011

  • dreamdragon1 Slake is to satisfy, so you can slake your hungar, your lust, your need for new words... Jun 1, 2009

  • pterodactyl I saw the same M*A*S*H episode, and I suggest that you can slake desire. :-) May 26, 2008

  • mollusque Lime. May 25, 2008

  • sblowes Can you think of any other thing you slake, other than thirst? May 25, 2008

  • dontcry My husband uses slake a different way. It would probably make Radar blush and Nicolas Cage snicker...

    May 15, 2008

  • trivet I'm with you, c_b. That may be the best explanation for Nicolas Cage ever. May 15, 2008

  • reesetee It always reminds me of Radar O'Reilly in a M*A*S*H episode where he first discovers the word in a poem. May 15, 2008

  • chained_bear I don't actually like this word, but it is neat in a kind of unlikable way. Like Nicolas Cage. May 15, 2008

  • rolig This word, aptly, contains a lake,
    but adds an initial s,
    and thus suggests
    the slipping and sliding and slithering
    of water down the throat:
    a liquid snake. Nov 29, 2007

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‘slake’ has been looked up 4999 times, loved by 17 people, added to 107 lists, commented on 10 times, and has a Scrabble score of 9.