Wiktionary

slake

English edit

Pronunciation edit

  • (UK) IPA(key): /sleɪk/
  • Rhymes: -eɪk
    • Audio (Southern England)(file)

Etymology 1 edit

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 edit

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

  1. (transitive) To satisfy (thirst, or other desires). [from 14thc.]
    Synonyms: quench, extinguish
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 40:
      slake the heavenly fire
    • 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[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:
      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[obert] and J[ames] 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.
    • 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.
  2. (transitive) To cool (something) with water or another liquid. [from 14thc.]
    • 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.
  3. (intransitive) To become mixed with water, so that a true chemical combination takes place.
    The lime slakes.
  5. (transitive) To mix with water, so that a true chemical combination takes place.
    to slake lime
  6. (intransitive, obsolete) Of a person: to become less energetic, to slacken in one's efforts. [11th–17thc.]
  7. (intransitive, obsolete) To slacken; to become relaxed or loose. [11th–16thc.]
    • 1595, John Davies, Orchestra:
      When the body's strongest sinews slake.
  8. (intransitive, obsolete) To become less intense; to weaken, decrease in force. [14th–19thc.]
    • 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)
  9. (intransitive, obsolete) To go out; to become extinct.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit

Etymology 2 edit

Probably connected with Icelandic sleikja, "to lick", and German schlecken (“to lick”).

Verb edit

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

  1. (transitive, Scotland) To besmear.

Noun edit

slake (plural slakes)

  1. (Scotland) A sloppy mess.

References edit

  • “slake”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
  1. ^ “slake, v.1.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
  2. ^ 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 edit

Norwegian Bokmål edit

Adjective edit

slake

  1. definite singular/plural of slak

Norwegian Nynorsk edit

Adjective edit

slake

  1. definite singular/plural of slak
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