RELAX • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Relax

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/rɪlˈæks/ /rilˈæks/ Listen

verb

Relax v. t. (past & past part. relaxed; pres. part. relaxing)

1.

To make lax or loose; to make less close, firm, rigid, tense, or the like; to slacken; to loosen; to open; as, to relax a rope or cord; to relax the muscles or sinews. "Horror... all his joints relaxed." "Nor served it to relax their serried files."

2.

To make less severe or rigorous; to abate the stringency of; to remit in respect to strenuousness, earnestness, or effort; as, to relax discipline; to relax one's attention or endeavors. "The statute of mortmain was at several times relaxed by the legislature."

3.

Hence, to relieve from attention or effort; to ease; to recreate; to divert; as, amusement relaxes the mind.

4.

To relieve from constipation; to loosen; to open; as, an aperient relaxes the bowels.

Synonyms: To slacken; loosen; loose; remit; abate; mitigate; ease; unbend; divert.

Relax v. i.

1.

To become lax, weak, or loose; as, to let one's grasp relax. "His knees relax with toil."

2.

To abate in severity; to become less rigorous. "In others she relaxed again, And governed with a looser rein."

3.

To remit attention or effort; to become less diligent; to unbend; as, to relax in study.

noun

Relax n. Relaxation. (Obs.)

adjective

Relax adj. Relaxed; lax; hence, remiss; careless.

See images of 'Relax'

Etymology of 'Relax'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Relax" Quotes from Famous Books

... the awful pressure began to relax, for the half-dozen streams were setting steadily out of the main street, while in several spots where dragoons had sat wedged in singly two had drifted together. Then there were threes and fours, and soon after a little body of about twenty had coalesced, stood in something like order, and were ...

— In Honour's Cause - A Tale of the Days of George the First • George Manville Fenn

... sighed, send your Spirit down On those lords so cruel and proud, And soften their hearts, and relax their frown, Or else, I cried aloud, Vouchsafe Thy strength to the peasant's hand To drive them at length ...

— Speeches from the Dock, Part I • Various

... know much about this subject or any other, but my mother was a woman!" The boys in the galleries laughed, and the Quakers, sitting with their hats on their heads, looking as solemn as if the funeral of the whole human race was being held and they were the chief mourners, did not relax a muscle of their faces, but thought I to myself, "That overgrown boy, drunk or sober, has solved the whole question." Women may doubt and hesitate, uncertain whether they want to vote or not, but men have only one position to take—to withdraw their opposition, and leave it ...

— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage

... The Canyon here was little more than a gorge whose walls rose sheer and menacing toward the narrow patch of blue sky above. He could not make up his mind to lie down and relax as Frank had done. All ...

— The Enchanted Canyon • Honore Willsie Morrow

... sat in the long winter evenings feeling such society in its cricket-voice, that raising my eyes from my book and looking gratefully towards it, the face reddened by the glow of the shining fire has seemed to relax from its staid expression and to regard me kindly! how often in the summer twilight, when my thoughts have wandered back to a melancholy past, have its regular whisperings recalled them to the calm and peaceful present! how often in the ...

— Master Humphrey's Clock • Charles Dickens

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