Loosen vs Slacken - What's the difference?
loosen | slacken |
To make loose.
* Francis Bacon
To free from restraint; to set at liberty.
* Dryden
To remove costiveness from; to facilitate or increase the alvine discharges of.
To gradually decrease in intensity or tautness; to become slack.
* 1900 , , The House Behind the Cedars , Chapter I,
* 1908 ,
To make slack, less taut, or less intense.
* 1986 , Mari Sandoz, The Horsecatcher?
To deprive of cohesion by combining chemically with water; to slake.
Slacken is a synonym of loosen.
As verbs the difference between loosen and slacken
is that loosen is to make loose while slacken is to gradually decrease in intensity or tautness; to become slack.loosen
English
Verb
(en verb)- to loosen a knot
- After the Thanksgiving meal, Bill loosened his belt.
- After a year's rooting, then shaking doth the tree good by loosening of the earth.
- It loosens his hands, and assists his understanding.
- (Francis Bacon)
Antonyms
* tightenDerived terms
* loosen the apron strings * loosen the purse strings * loosenerSee also
* lose English ergative verbsslacken
English
Verb
(en verb)- The pace slackened .
- During this interlude, Warwick, though he had slackened his pace measurably, had so nearly closed the gap between himself and them as to hear the old woman say, with the dulcet negro intonation:...
- He seemed tired, and the Rat let him rest unquestioned, understanding something of what was in his thoughts; knowing, too, the value all animals attach at times to mere silent companionship, when the weary muscles slacken and the mind marks time.
- Elk slackened the rope so he could walk farther away, and together they went awkwardly up the trail toward the grassy little flat...
- to slack lime
