Pronunciations
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/sleɪk/
Pronunciation notes
- UK
Verb
To satisfy (thirst, or other desires).
Usage- Transitive
- Synonyms
- Examples
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slake the heavenly fire
It could not slake mine ire nor ease my heart.
More examples (7)
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.
Tarzan went to the brook first, and slaked his thirst. Then he approached his cabin.
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.
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.
Before the transformation takes / And blood lust tanks and crave gets slaked
Europeans’ labour requirements in the New World were also slaked by slaves from Africa.
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.
To cool (something) with water or another liquid.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
To become mixed with water, so that a true chemical combination takes place.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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The lime slakes.
To mix with water, so that a true chemical combination takes place.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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to slake lime
Of a person: to become less energetic, to slacken in one's efforts.
Usage- Intransitive
- Obsolete
To slacken; to become relaxed or loose.
Usage- Intransitive
- Obsolete
- Examples
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When the body's strongest sinews slake.
To become less intense; to weaken, decrease in force.
Usage- Intransitive
- Obsolete
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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"
To go out; to become extinct.
Usage- Intransitive
- Obsolete
- Examples
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His flame did slake.
Verb
To besmear.
Usage- Scotland
- Transitive
Noun
A sloppy mess.
Usage- Scotland
Noun
A slack, a tidal wetland.
- Examples
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More examples (3)
The slakes are waste lands bordering on the seashore, which are covered with water when the tide comes in. The word is common in Northumberland, where the slakes between the Mainland and Holy Island, are much frequented by sportsmen[…]
A "slake" of similar character, but of much less extent, was, until recently, found within the estuary of the Tyne. This is […] "Jarrow Slake" [...] frequented by great numbers of aquatic birds.
[Concerning] Fenham Slakes, Mr Bolam procured from the Rev. W. W. F. Keeling, of the vicarage, Holy Island, the information that "Thomas Bowey, over at the Beacons, shot on the slakes a young one, rather small for a Swan[…]"
Verb
satisfy (thirst)
- Examples
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The cold water quenched his thirst
make less active or intense
cause to heat and crumble by treatment with water
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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slack lime