Relent vs Condone - What's the difference?
relent | condone |
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.
* Shakespeare
To slacken; to abate.
(obsolete) To lessen, make less severe or fast.
* 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , III.iv:
(dated) To become less rigid or hard; to soften; to yield; to dissolve; to melt; to deliquesce.
* Boyle
* Alexander Pope
To forgive, excuse or overlook (something).
*{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
, chapter=18 To allow, accept or permit (something).
(legal) To forgive (marital infidelity or other marital offense).
As verbs the difference between relent and condone
is that 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 while condone is to forgive, excuse or overlook (something).As a noun relent
is stay; stop; delay.relent
English
Derived terms
* relentlessVerb
(en verb)- 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)
- Can you behold / My sighs and tears, and will not once relent ?
- We waited for the storm to relent before we ventured outside.
- He will not relent in his effort to reclaim his victory.
- But nothing might relent her hastie flight; / So deepe the deadly feare of that foule swaine / Was earst impressed in her gentle spright [...].
- [Salt of tartar] placed in a cellar will begin to relent .
- When opening buds salute the welcome day, / And earth, relenting , feels the genial ray.
condone
English
Verb
(condon)citation, passage=‘Then the father has a great fight with his terrible conscience,’ said Munday with granite seriousness. ‘Should he make a row with the police […]? Or should he say nothing about it and condone brutality for fear of appearing in the newspapers?}}