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Relax vs Anxious - What's the difference?

relax | anxious |

As a verb relax

is to calm down.

As an adjective anxious is

full of anxiety or disquietude; greatly concerned or solicitous, especially respecting something future or unknown; being in painful suspense;—applied to persons; as, anxious for the issue of a battle.

relax

English

Verb

(es)
  • To calm down.
  • To make something loose.
  • to relax''' a rope or cord; to '''relax the muscles or sinews
  • * Milton
  • Horror all his joints relaxed .
  • To become loose.
  • To make something less severe or tense.
  • to relax''' discipline; to '''relax one's attention or endeavours
  • To become less severe or tense.
  • To make something (such as codes and regulations) more lenient.
  • * Jonathan Swift
  • The stature of mortmain was at several times relaxed by the legislature.
    {{quote-book
    , year=1953 , author=Edward Corwin , title=The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation , chapter=Section 2. Jurisdiction citation , page=589 , passage=The Court rejected the contention that the doctrine of sovereign immunity should be relaxed as inapplicable to suits for specific relief as distinguished from damage suits, saying: "The Government, as representative of the community as a whole, cannot be stopped in its tracks by any plaintiff who presents a disputed question of property or contract right."}}
  • (of codes and regulations) To become more lenient.
  • To relieve (something) from stress.
  • Amusement relaxes the mind.
  • (dated) To relieve from constipation; to loosen; to open.
  • An aperient relaxes the bowels.

    Antonyms

    * stress, excite

    Derived terms

    * relaxable

    Anagrams

    * ----

    anxious

    English

    (Anxiety) (Webster 1913)

    Alternative forms

    * anctious (obsolete)

    Adjective

    (en-adj)
  • Full of anxiety or disquietude; greatly concerned or solicitous, especially respecting something future or unknown; being in painful suspense;—applied to persons; as, anxious for the issue of a battle.
  • :
  • *
  • *:Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious , despondent, miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=19 citation , passage=Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost. She took the policeman's helmet and placed it on a chair, and unfolded his tunic to shake it and fold it up again for him.}}
  • *{{quote-news, year=2012, date=May 13, author=Alistair Magowan, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd , passage=But, with United fans in celebratory mood as it appeared their team might snatch glory, they faced an anxious wait as City equalised in stoppage time.}}
  • Accompanied with, or causing, anxiety; worrying;—applied to things; as, anxious labor.
  • *(John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • *:The sweet of life, from which God hath bid dwell far off all anxious cares.
  • Earnestly desirous; as, anxious to please.
  • :
  • * (1800-1859)
  • *:He sneers alike at those who are anxious to preserve and at those who are eager for reform.
  • Usage notes

    * Anxious is followed by for, about, concerning, etc., before the object of solicitude.

    Synonyms

    * careful * concerned * disturbed * restless * solicitous * uneasy * unquiet * watchful