slake

present singular third person slakes · participle present slaking · participle past slaked · past slaked

1. transitiveTo satisfy (thirst, or other desires).First known use 14ᵗʰc.

   slake the heavenly fire

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 40

   5 more examples

   It could not slake mine ire nor ease my heart.

   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]

   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.

   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

   Tarzan went to the brook first, and slaked his thirst. Then he approached his cabin.

   1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 118

   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.

   1923, Liam O'Flaherty, “Saturday”, in Thy Neighbour's Wife, 1st paperback edition, Wolfhound Press, →ISBN, page 214

   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.

   1991, David Koulack, To catch a dream: explorations of dreaming, page 98

   Synonyms: quench, extinguish

2. transitiveTo cool (something) with water or another liquid.First known use 14ᵗʰc.

   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.

   1961, Lawrence Durrell, Justine, page 14

3. intransitiveTo become mixed with water, so that a true chemical combination takes place.

   The lime slakes.

4. transitiveTo mix with water, so that a true chemical combination takes place.

   to slake lime

5. intransitiveobsoleteOf a person: to become less energetic, to slacken in one's efforts.First known use 11ᵗʰ–17ᵗʰc.
6. intransitiveobsoleteTo slacken; to become relaxed or loose.First known use 11ᵗʰ–16ᵗʰc.

   When the body's strongest sinews slake.

   1595, John Davies, Orchestra

7. intransitiveobsoleteTo become less intense; to weaken, decrease in force.First known use 14ᵗʰ–19ᵗʰc.

   1 more example

   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"

   1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “Primum”, in Le Morte Darthur, book XVIII

8. intransitiveobsoleteTo go out; to become extinct.

   His flame did slake.

   1613, William Browne, Britannia's Pastorals

present singular third person slakes · participle present slaking · participle past slaked · past slaked

1. ScotlandtransitiveTo besmear.

plural slakes

1. ScotlandA sloppy mess.

plural slakes

1. A slack, a tidal wetland.

   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.

   1874, Natural History Transactions of Northumberland and Durham

   2 more examples

   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[…]

   1868, James Maidment, A Book of Scotish Pasquils. 1568-1715, page 4

   [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[…]"

   1879, Berwickshire Naturalists' Club (Scotland), History of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, Instituted September 22, 1831, page 530