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slake. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
slake, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
slake in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
slake you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle English slaken (“to render slack, to slake”), from Old English sleacian, from Old English slæc (“slack”). Unrelated to, but possibly influenced by, the Old Norse sløkkva (“to extinguish”), compare Swedish släcka in the phrase släcka sin törst (“quench one's thirst”), släcka elden (“put out the fire”), and släckt kalk (“slaked lime”).[1][2]
Verb
slake (third-person singular simple present slakes, present participle slaking, simple past and past participle slaked)
- (transitive) To satisfy (thirst, or other desires).
- Synonyms: quench, extinguish
c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, ”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :It could not slake mine ire nor ease my heart.
1740, John Dyer, “The Ruins of Rome. A Poem.”, in Poems. Viz. I. Grongar Hill. II. The Ruins of Rome. III. The Fleece, in Four Books, London: Printed by John Hughs, for Messrs. R and J Dodsley, , published 1759, →OCLC, pages 42–43:Tyrian garbs, / Neptunian Albion's high teſtaceous food [i.e., oysters], / And flavour'd Chian wines with incenſe fum'd / To ſlake Patrician thirſt: for theſe, their rights / In the vile ſtreets they proſtitute to ſale; / Their ancient rights, their dignities, their laws, / Their native glorious freedom.
1923, Liam O'Flaherty, “Saturday”, in Thy Neighbour's Wife, 1st paperback edition, Wolfhound Press, →ISBN, page 214:The booths of the publicans gazed shamelessly at the sun, with two empty porter barrels as supports at their doors, ready to smile at their clients with their seductive roundness, ready to lure the thirsty islanders into the gloomy recesses beneath the canvas, where Mulligan's assistant or Mrs Moroney's assistant would hand out frothy pints of porter and glistening tumblers of whisky to slake the thirst and set the blood tingling.
1991, David Koulack, To catch a dream: explorations of dreaming, page 98:In that study, some of the subjects had dreams in which they were slaking their thirst, very much like the dreams of convenience Freud described.
2006, “Wolf Like Me”, in Return to Cookie Mountain, performed by TV on the Radio:Before the transformation takes / And blood lust tanks and crave gets slaked
2017, Jason Hickel, The Divide , London: William Heinemann, →ISBN:Europeans’ labour requirements in the New World were also slaked by slaves from Africa.
2022 November 30, Paul Bigland, “Destination Oban: a Sunday in Scotland”, in RAIL, number 971, page 75:After watching people downing drink on the train, I am in need of slaking my own thirst, so I pop into the station's Centurion Bar.
- (transitive) To cool (something) with water or another liquid.
1961, Lawrence Durrell, Justine, page 14:Notes for landscape tones. Long sequences of tempera. Light filtered through the essence of lemons. An air full of brick-dust - sweet smelling brick dust and the odour of hot pavements slaked with water.
- (intransitive) To become mixed with water, so that a true chemical combination takes place.
The lime slakes.
- (transitive) To mix with water, so that a true chemical combination takes place.
to slake lime
- (intransitive, obsolete) Of a person: to become less energetic, to slacken in one's efforts.
- (intransitive, obsolete) To slacken; to become relaxed or loose.
1595, John Davies, Orchestra:When the body's strongest sinews slake.
- (intransitive, obsolete) To become less intense; to weaken, decrease in force.
1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “Primum”, in Le Morte Darthur, book XVIII:wherfor the quene waxed wroth with sir Launcelot / and vpon a day she called sir launcelot vnto her chamber and saide thus / Sir launcelot I see and fele dayly that thy loue begynneth to slake / for thou hast no Ioye to be in my presence / but euer thou arte oute of thys Courte
"wherefore the queen waxed wroth with Sir Launcelot. And upon a day she called Sir Launcelot unto her chamber, and said thus: Sir Launcelot, I see and feel daily that thy love beginneth to slake, for thou hast no joy to be in my presence, but ever thou art out of this court"- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
- (intransitive, obsolete) To go out; to become extinct.
Derived terms
Translations
to satisfy (thirst or other desires)
— see also satisfy
- Armenian: հագեցնել (hy) (hagecʻnel)
- Bulgarian: утолявам (bg) (utoljavam), уталожвам (bg) (utaložvam)
- Finnish: sammuttaa (fi)
- French: étancher (fr), rassasier (fr)
- German: stillen (de), befriedigen (de), löschen (de) (of thirst), zufriedenstellen (de)
- Hungarian: olt (hu), csillapít (hu), enyhít (hu), elolt (hu)
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: slukke tørsten (literally, figuratively)
- Portuguese: matar (pt), saciar (pt)
- Russian: утоля́ть (ru) n (utoljátʹ)
- Spanish: saciar (es)
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to cool with water
— see also cool
to become mixed with water, so that a true chemical combination takes place
to mix with water, so that a true chemical combination takes place
(obsolete in English) to become less energetic
(obsolete in English) to slacken
— see also slacken
(obsolete in English) to become less intense
Etymology 2
Probably connected with Icelandic sleikja, "to lick", and German schlecken (“to lick”).
Verb
slake (third-person singular simple present slakes, present participle slaking, simple past and past participle slaked)
- (transitive, Scotland) To besmear.
Noun
slake (plural slakes)
- (Scotland) A sloppy mess.
References
- “slake”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
- ^ “slake, v.1.”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
- ^ Heidermanns, Frank (1993) “slaka-”, in Etymologisches Wörterbuch der germanischen Primäradjektive (Studia linguistica Germanica; 33) (in German), Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 506
Anagrams
- skale, Sakel, Leaks, Lakes, laske, Salek, LASEK, kales, Kasel, Lasek, Alsek, Akels, Lekas, Leask, leaks, lakes
Norwegian Bokmål
Adjective
slake
- definite singular/plural of slak
Norwegian Nynorsk
Adjective
slake
- definite singular/plural of slak