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Persistent vs Relent - What's the difference?

persistent | relent |

As an adjective persistent

is obstinately refusing to give up or let go.

As a noun relent is

stay; stop; delay.

As a verb relent is

to become less severe or intense; to become less hard, harsh, or cruel; to soften in temper; to become more mild and tender; to feel compassion.

persistent

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Obstinately refusing to give up or let go.
    • She has had a persistent cough for weeks.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=November 10 , author=Jeremy Wilson , title= England Under 21 5 Iceland Under 21 0: match report , work=Telegraph citation , page= , passage=The most persistent tormentor was Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who scored a hat-trick in last month’s corresponding fixture in Iceland. His ability to run at defences is instantly striking, but it is his clever use of possession that has persuaded some shrewd judges that he is an even better prospect than Theo Walcott.}}
  • Insistently repetitive.
    • There was a persistent knocking on the door.
  • Indefinitely continuous.
    • There have been persistent rumours for years.
  • (botany) Lasting past maturity without falling off.
    • Pine cones have persistent scales.
  • *
    • The Jubulaceae have a leaf whose lobule, usually transformed into a water-sac, is normally very narrowly attached to the stem and to the dorsal lobe; indeed some Frullania'' taxa reproduce vegetatively by dropping the dorsal lobes, but not the lobules, and ''Neohattoria has caducous lobules but persistent lobes.
  • (computing) About some data or data structures: existing after the execution of the program. Remaining in existence past the lifetime of the program that creates it.
    • Once written to a disk file the data becomes persistent and it will still be there tomorrow when we run the next program.
    This way transient value becomes persistent .
  • (mathematics) Describing a fractal process that has a positive Brown function
  • (mathematics, stochastic processes, of a state) non-transient.

    • Related terms

    * persist * persistence * persistency * persistently

    Anagrams

    * ----

    relent

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Stay; stop; delay.

    • Derived terms

    * relentless

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To become less severe or intense; to become less hard, harsh, or cruel; to soften in temper; to become more mild and tender; to feel compassion.
    • He relented of his plan to murder his opponent, and decided just to teach him a lesson instead.
    I did, I suppose, hope that she might finally relent a little and make some conciliatory response or other. (from "The Remains of the Day"? by Kazuo Ishiguro)
  • * Shakespeare
    • Can you behold / My sighs and tears, and will not once relent ?
  • To slacken; to abate.
    • We waited for the storm to relent before we ventured outside.
    He will not relent in his effort to reclaim his victory.
  • (obsolete) To lessen, make less severe or fast.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , III.iv:
    • But nothing might relent her hastie flight; / So deepe the deadly feare of that foule swaine / Was earst impressed in her gentle spright [...].
  • (dated) To become less rigid or hard; to soften; to yield; to dissolve; to melt; to deliquesce.
  • * Boyle
    • [Salt of tartar] placed in a cellar will begin to relent .
  • * Alexander Pope
    • When opening buds salute the welcome day, / And earth, relenting , feels the genial ray.