slake

English

From Middle English slaken (“to render slack, to slake”), from Old English sleacian, from sleac (“slack”).

slake (third-person singular simple present slakes, present participle slaking, simple past and past participle slaked)

(intransitive, obsolete) Of a person: to become less energetic, to slacken in one's efforts. [11th-17th c.]
(intransitive, obsolete) To slacken; to become relaxed or loose. [11th-16th c.]
- Sir J. Davies
  When the body's strongest sinews slake.
(intransitive, obsolete) To become less intense; to weaken, decrease in force. [14th-19th c.]
- 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book XVIII:
  ‘Sir Launcelot, I se and fele dayly that youre love begynnyth to slake, for ye have no joy to be in my presence, but ever ye ar oute of thys courte [...].’
(intransitive, obsolete) To go out; to become extinct.
- Sir Thomas Browne
  His flame did slake.
(transitive) To satisfy (thirst, or other desires); to quench. [from 14th c.]
- 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.
(transitive) To cool (something) with water or another liquid. [from 14th c.]
- 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.