SLACKEN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does slacken mean? 

• SLACKEN (verb)
  The verb SLACKEN has 4 senses:

1. become slow or slower

2. make less active or fast

3. become looser or slack

4. make slack as by lessening tension or firmness

  Familiarity information: SLACKEN used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SLACKEN (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they slacken    ... he / she / it slackens   
Past simple: slackened   
Past participle: slackened   
-ing form: slackening   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Become slow or slower

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

slack; slacken; slow; slow down; slow up

Context example:

Production slowed

Hypernyms (to "slacken" is one way to...):

weaken (become weaker)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make less active or fast

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

relax; slack; slack up; slacken

Context example:

Don't relax your efforts now

Hypernyms (to "slacken" is one way to...):

decrease; lessen; minify (make smaller)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Become looser or slack

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

the rope slackened

Hypernyms (to "slacken" is one way to...):

weaken (become weaker)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Also:

slacken off (become less intense)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Make slack as by lessening tension or firmness

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

remit; slacken

Hypernyms (to "slacken" is one way to...):

loose; loosen (make loose or looser)

Cause:

slacken (become looser or slack)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "slacken"):

douse; dowse (slacken)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

slackening (an occurrence of control or strength weakening)

 Context examples 

Then the pursuit slackened, for they learned our power and would no longer face that unerring rifle.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

At first I wished to hurry on, for I longed to console and sympathise with my loved and sorrowing friends; but when I drew near my native town, I slackened my progress.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

The halyards slackened, and, though it all happened very quickly, I could see them sag beneath the weight of his body.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The ship slackened her sails, and I came up with her between five and six in the evening, September 26th; but my heart leaped within me to see her English colours.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The sun sank slowly towards the low Surrey hills, and the shadows crept steadily eastwards, but the whirr of the wheels and the roar of the hoofs never slackened.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

At last the breeze came; the schooner sidled and drew nearer in the dark; I felt the hawser slacken once more, and with a good, tough effort, cut the last fibres through.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

It had no advantage of situation; but had been very much smartened up by the present proprietor; and, such as it was, there could be no possibility of the two friends passing it without a slackened pace and observing eyes.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Elizabeth could never address her without feeling that all the comfort of intimacy was over, and though determined not to slacken as a correspondent, it was for the sake of what had been, rather than what was.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Edmund watched the progress of her attention, and was amused and gratified by seeing how she gradually slackened in the needlework, which at the beginning seemed to occupy her totally: how it fell from her hand while she sat motionless over it, and at last, how the eyes which had appeared so studiously to avoid him throughout the day were turned and fixed on Crawford—fixed on him for minutes, fixed on him, in short, till the attraction drew Crawford's upon her, and the book was closed, and the charm was broken.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Whether it was the purifying of the deadly atmosphere by the opening of the chapel door, or the relief which we experienced by finding ourselves in the open I know not; but most certainly the shadow of dread seemed to slip from us like a robe, and the occasion of our coming lost something of its grim significance, though we did not slacken a whit in our resolution.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)