Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To satisfy (a craving); quench: slaked her thirst.
- v. To lessen the force or activity of; moderate: slaking his anger.
- v. To cool or refresh by wetting or moistening.
- v. To combine (lime) chemically with water or moist air.
- v. To undergo a slaking process; crumble or disintegrate, as lime.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To become slack; loosen; slacken; fall off.
- To be lax, remiss, or negligent.
- To become less strong, active, energetic, severe, intense, or the like; abate; decrease; fail; cease.
- To desist; give over: fall short.
- To become disintegrated and loosened by the action of water; become chemically combined with water: as, the lime slakes.
- To make slack or slow; slow; slacken.
- To make slack or loose; render less tense, firm, or compact; slacken. Specifically
- To loosen or disintegrate; reduce to powder by the action of water: as, to slake lime. Also slack.
- To let loose; release.
- 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.
- n. A channel through a swamp or mud-flat.
- n. Slime or mud.
- To besmear; daub.
- n. A slovenly or slabbery daub; a slight dabbing or bedaubing as with something soft and slabbery; a “lick.”
- 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
- v. intransitive, obsolete To go out; to become extinct.
- v. intransitive To become mixed with water, so that a true chemical combination takes place.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To allay; to quench; to extinguish.
- v. To mix with water, so that a true chemical combination shall take place; to slack.
- v. To go out; to become extinct.
- v. rare To abate; to become less decided.
- v. rare, rare To slacken; to become relaxed.
- v. To become mixed with water, so that a true chemical combination takes place.
WordNet 3.0
- v. make less active or intense
- v. cause to heat and crumble by treatment with water
- v. satisfy (thirst)
Etymologies
- From Middle English slaken ("to render slack, to slake"), from Old English sleacian, from sleac ("slack"). (Wiktionary)
- 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
“If I can find them, perhaps they'll slake my thirst for Barker's short fiction.”
“Too bad it would do no more than slake his thirst.”
“Some do and "fan fiction" is an excellent way for them to slake their thirst for content without destroying the mystery for everyone else.”
The Guardian: JK Rowling should remember that less means more in the Potterverse | David Mitchell
“Hoping to slake a thirst around 4 p.m., the audience member had been disappointed to learn that such obvious choices as PS 7's, Rasika and Zola don't serve drinks until closer to the dinner hour.”
“Drawn & Quarterly will slake my curiosity with Black Blizzard, the tale of two convicts, cuffed together and on the run.”
“That the Saudis are even considering such a project shows how difficult and costly it is becoming to slake the world's thirst for oil.”
“Eager to slake their thirst for adventure, the brothers competed against a hundred others in the Enduro Africa off-road motorcycle rally, tearing across more than a thousand miles of rugged African terrain on their Honda CRF 230 cc bikes.”
“You begin changing what you can about yourself to slake the thirst of a grasping world, and to settle the demons of insecurity leaping at your psyche.”
“She would explore her attraction to him, slake these drives, and loosen the hold he had over her.”
““If it comes to the brutal action of really as one says chewing and devouring human flesh, have we not found people in these regions over here, even among those who bear the name of Christian … who, not content with having cruelly put to death their enemies, have been unable to slake their bloodthirst except by eating their livers and hearts?””
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘slake’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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IMCO - EU nomenclature
includes words of the "Prodcom list"
abaca, abdominal, abrasive, absorbent, absorber, accelerator, accessory, account book, accumulator, acebutolol, acetaldehyde, acetamide and 4515 more...
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From reading
Collected from reading
venerate, reprobate, reticent, adoration, ethereal, ephemeral, equivocal, contumacious, heinous, solicitous, agnostic, aberration and 335 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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(1st_wk_150)-Dec_5_2012
voracious, indiscriminate, eminent, steeped, replete, abound, technology, prognosticate, automaton, matron, paradox, realm and 297 more...
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Naresh_Gre2
convoke, cosset, coterie, declaim, distaff, doff, dovetail, droll, dyspeptic, egress, ersatz, euphemism and 108 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2057 more...
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Stalking Darkness
Words and phrases from Lynn Flewelling's book, Stalking Darkness.
inquest, halyard, catamount, occlude, founder, more, grouse, grapple, water butt, antepenultimate, palimpsest, hob and 196 more...
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Faves
nepenthe, cupidity, anodyne, obdurate, doleful, obsolescent, quale, piquant, velleity, inchoate, disport, facile and 366 more...
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Revised GRE Wordlist_2013
Vocabulary building for my quest of GRE 2013
ephemeral, esoteric, rhetoric, censure, egregious, pittance, dupe, mulct, paucity, alacrity, maintain, laconic and 1008 more...
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traipsin' 'long through dis 'ear book...
Words which are either entirely new to me or;
Words which I comprehend generally but would prefer a more precise definition.
venality, seigneurial, mendicant, perforce, manse, glebe, trenchant, saw, obstreperous, profligate, dissipation, galliard and 176 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for slake.

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