slacken
/ˈslæ.kən/
slacken verb: to gradually decrease in intensity or tautness; to become slack; to lag.
Verb
slacken (third-person singular simple present slackens, present participle slackening, simple past and past participle slackened)
- To gradually decrease in intensity or tautness; to become slack; to lag.
- The pace slackened.
- He seemed tired, and the Rat let him rest unquestioned, understanding something of what was in his thoughts; knowing, too, the value all animals attach at times to mere silent companionship, when the weary muscles slacken and the mind marks time.1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC
- To make slack, less taut, or less intense.
- slacken the rope
- During this interlude, Warwick, though he had slackened his pace measurably, had so nearly closed the gap between himself and them as to hear the old woman say, with the dulcet negro intonation: […]1900, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC
- To deprive of cohesion by combining chemically with water; to slake.
- to slacken lime
slacken meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Telugu and Malayalam
slacken in Tamil
- to slacken, delay
- பிற்படு piṟpaṭu
slacken in Bengali
- ঢিলে করা, মন্থর করা, কমানো
slacken in Telugu
- to slacken, loosen, divest, open, sever, separate
- ఊడుచు ūḍucu
slacken in Malayalam
- അയയുക, ശിഥിലീഭവിക്കുക, പരാജയപ്പെടുക
More languagesFewer languages
- slacken in Kannada
- ನಾಂಬು, ಚುರುಕು ಕಳೆ, ಸಡಿಲವಾಗು, ಸಡಿಲಬಿಡು
- slacken in Sanskrit
- तन्द् tand
Examples of slacken in a sentence
- The action moves at lightening ^([sic]) pace, never slackening for a moment.1984 April 28, Bill Kreidler, “Farcical Improbability”, in Gay Community News, page 14:
- Elk slackened the rope so he could walk farther away, and together they went awkwardly up the trail toward the grassy little flat[…]1986, Mari Sandoz, The Horsecatcher:
Synonyms of slacken
Forms of slacken
| third-person singular present | slackens |
|---|---|
| present participle | slackening |
| past participle | slackened |
| past | slackened |
Origin of slacken
From Middle English slakenen, equivalent to slack + -en.
Words formed from slacken
Words that rhyme with slacken
Questions about slacken
- What does slacken mean?
- Slacken means to gradually decrease in intensity or tautness; to become slack; to lag.
- What is slacken in Tamil?
- Slacken in Tamil is பிற்படு (piṟpaṭu). See Slacken meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use slacken in a sentence?
- The action moves at lightening ^([sic]) pace, never slackening for a moment.
- What part of speech is slacken?
- Slacken is a verb.
- How do you pronounce slacken?
- Slacken is pronounced /ˈslæ.kən/.
- What is the past tense of slacken?
- The past tense of slacken is slackened.
Words near slacken in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: slacken (page history and authors); பிற்படு (Tamil) (page history and authors); slacken (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ఊడుచు (Telugu) (page history and authors); slacken (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); slacken (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); तन्द् (Sanskrit) (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-slacken.wav.
Cite this entry: “slacken.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/slacken. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.