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Capitulate vs Relent - What's the difference?

capitulate | relent |

As verbs the difference between capitulate and relent

is that capitulate is (obsolete) to draw up in chapters; to enumerate while 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.

As a noun relent is

stay; stop; delay.

capitulate

English

Verb

(capitulat)
  • (obsolete) To draw up in chapters; to enumerate.
  • (obsolete) To draw up the articles of treaty with; to treat, bargain, parley.
  • * Heylin
    • there capitulates with the king to take to wife his daughter Mary
  • To surrender; to end all resistance, to give up; to go along with or comply.
    • He argued and hollered for so long that I finally capitulated just to make him stop.
  • * Macaulay
    • The Irish, after holding out a week, capitulated .

    Synonyms

    * wave the white flag

    Related terms

    * chapiter * chapter * capital * capitalism * captain * capitulation * capitulatory * recapitulate

    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.