Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Present participle of slacken.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an occurrence of control or strength weakening

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Du Plessis blamed the government's transformation policy for what he described as a slackening of the country's security forces

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2005

  • Du Plessis blamed the government's transformation policy for what he described as a slackening of the country's security forces

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2005

  • He felt the train slackening speed, and peered again through the misty window.

    THE SEA FARMER 2010

  • The struggle has caught hold along the whole line and enthusiasm for the lofty aim runs so high that a slackening is no longer to be feared.

    Robert Koch - Nobel Lecture 1967

  • He felt the train slackening speed, and peered again through the misty window.

    The Sea Farmer 1914

  • She had gone on for about a mile, and it was growing dark, and her horse was again slackening his pace, when she thought she heard the sound of another horse's hoofs behind her.

    The Hidden Hand 1888

  • QUESTION: Did the prime minister mention anything about the -- did he use the word "slackening," that the U.S. wasn't prepared for this kind of war?

    CNN Transcript Nov 9, 2001 2001

  • Even though data suggests a "slackening" of sales, retailers such as Wal-Mart, Tesco are expanding in China.

    The Business of Fashion 2009

  • Mike Kenny's adaptation, playing pick-and-mix with the original, pads some scenes, slashes others, slowing the pace and slackening dramatic tensions.

    Peter Pan – review 2011

  • Now he studied the sea to windward for signs of the wind slackening or freshening, now the Macedonia; and again, his eyes roved over every sail, and he gave commands to slack a sheet here a trifle, to come in on one there a trifle, till he was drawing out of the Ghost the last bit of speed she possessed.

    Chapter 25 2010

Comments

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  • My adjectival use: 'You need to wait for the slackening tide.'

    August 24, 2011