slake

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To satisfy (thirst, or other desires).

   Slake the heavenly fire.

2. 2
   verb

   To cool (something) with water or another liquid.

   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.

3. 3
   verb

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

   The lime slakes.

4. 4
   verb

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

   To slake lime.

Simplified etymology

Slake is an Old English word sharing a Germanic root with slack. It originally meant “to become less eager” in a general sense before its use became restricted to things such as thirst. Both words are more distantly related to Latin laxus, “loose.”

From Middle English slaken (“to render slack, to slake”), from Old English sleacian, from Old English slæc (“slack”). Unrelated to, but possibly influenced by, the Old Norse sløkkva (“to extinguish”), compare Swedish släcka in the phrase släcka sin törst (“quench one's thirst”), släcka elden (“put out the fire”), and släckt kalk (“slaked lime”).

Topics

External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary