relent
/ɹɪˈlɛnt/
relent verb: to give in or be swayed; to become less hard, harsh, or cruel; to show clemency.
Verb
relent (third-person singular simple present relents, present participle relenting, simple past and past participle relented)
- To give in or be swayed; to become less hard, harsh, or cruel; to show clemency.
- He had planned to ground his son for a month, but relented and decided to give him a stern lecture instead.
- Can you, my Lord of Winchester, behold
My sighs and tears and will not once relent?1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- To slacken; to abate.
- We waited for the storm to relent before we ventured outside.
- He will not relent in his effort to reclaim his victory.
- To lessen, make less severe or intense.
- But nothing might relent her hastie flight; / So deepe the deadly feare of that foule swaine / Was earst impressed in her gentle spright […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
- To become less rigid or hard; to soften; to yield, for example by dissolving or melting
- [Salt of tartar] placed in a cellar will […] begin to relent.1669, Robert Boyle, The History of Fluidity and Firmness
- When opening buds salute the welcome day, / And earth, relenting, feels the genial ray.1717, Alexander Pope, “Eloisa to Abelard”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, →OCLC
Noun
relent (plural relents)
Adjective
relent (comparative more relent, superlative most relent)
relent meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
relent in Tamil
- மனம் இரங்கு
relent in Urdu
- دب جانا, نرم پڑنا, پگھلنا, ترس کھانا
relent in Bengali
- নমনীয় হওয়া, দয়া করা
relent in Malayalam
- മനസ്സലിയുക, കർക്കശതീരുമാനത്തിൽ അയവുവരിക, കാരുണ്യം കാട്ടുക
More languagesFewer languages
- relent in Kannada
- ಪಟ್ಟುಸಡಿಲಿಸು, ಬಿಗಿತಕಳೆ, ಮರುಕ ತೋರಿಸು, ಮರುಕ ತೋರು
- relent in Persian
- نرم شدن narm šodan
- relent in Thai
- อ่อนข้อ ɔ̀ɔn-kɔ̂ɔ
Examples of relent in a sentence
- There he restrained his old hound Time […] For the minds of the gods relent towards their earliest memories, who relent not otherwise at all.1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC:
- I did, I suppose, hope that she might finally relent a little and make some conciliatory response or other.1989, Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day:
Forms of relent
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | relents |
| present participle | relenting |
| past participle | relented |
| past | relented |
| Noun | |
| plural | relents |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more relent |
| superlative | most relent |
Origin of relent
From Middle English relenten, from Anglo-Norman relentir, from Latin re- + lentare (“to bend”), from lentus (“soft, pliant, slow”). Earliest recording dates to 1526. The noun is from the verb.
Words formed from relent
Words that rhyme with relent
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- repent
- ascent
- rent
- resent
- scent
- absent
- augment
- cement
- content
- extent
- fragment
- lent
- prevent
- anent
- consent
- dent
- dissent
- percent
- spent
- Tashkent
- tent
- accent
- circumvent
- convent
- discontent
- intent
- invent
- went
- %
- assent
- dement
- ferment
- foment
- gent
- Gwent
- incent
- lament
- malcontent
- reinvent
- stent
- underrepresent
- attent
- big tent
- blent
- detent
- diapertent
- djent
- ent
Questions about relent
- What does relent mean?
- Relent means to give in or be swayed; to become less hard, harsh, or cruel; to show clemency.
- What is relent in Tamil?
- Relent in Tamil is மனம் இரங்கு. See Relent meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use relent in a sentence?
- There he restrained his old hound Time […] For the minds of the gods relent towards their earliest memories, who relent not otherwise at all.
- What part of speech is relent?
- Relent can be a verb, a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce relent?
- Relent is pronounced /ɹɪˈlɛnt/.
- What is the past tense of relent?
- The past tense of relent is relented.
Words near relent in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: relent (page history and authors); relent (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); relent (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); relent (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); relent (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); relent (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Mélange a trois-relent.wav.
Cite this entry: “relent.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/relent. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.