slacken

verb
/ˈslæ.kən/

Etymology

From Middle English slakenen, equivalent to slack + -en.

  1. inherited from slakenen

Definitions

  1. To gradually decrease in intensity or tautness

    To gradually decrease in intensity or tautness; to become slack; to lag.

    • The pace slackened.
    • The action moves at lightening ^([sic]) pace, never slackening for a moment.
  2. To make slack, less taut, or less intense.

    • slacken the rope
    • During this interlude, Warwick, though he had slackened his pace measurably, had so nearly closed the gap between himself and them as to hear the old woman say, with the dulcet negro intonation: […]
    • Elk slackened the rope so he could walk farther away, and together they went awkwardly up the trail toward the grassy little flat[…]
  3. To deprive of cohesion by combining chemically with water

    To deprive of cohesion by combining chemically with water; to slake.

    • to slacken lime

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at slacken. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01slacken02slack03loose04unfasten05unloosed06unloose

A definitional loop anchored at slacken. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

6 hops · closes at slacken

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA