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.

Verb

(es)

To make smaller.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-12-14

, author=Simon Jenkins, authorlink=Simon Jenkins, volume=188, issue=2, page=23 , date=2012-12-21, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= We mustn't overreact to North Korea boys' toys , passage=The threat of terrorism to the British lies in the overreaction to it of British governments. Each one in turn clicks up the ratchet of surveillance, intrusion and security. Each one diminishes liberty.}}

To become smaller.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Old soldiers? , passage=Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine.

To lessen the authority or dignity of; to put down; to degrade; to abase; to weaken.

* Robynson (More's Utopia)

This doth nothing diminish their opinion.

* Bible, Ezekiel xxix. 15

I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations.

* Milton

O thou at whose sight all the stars / Hide their diminished heads.

To taper.

To disappear gradually.

To take away; to subtract.

* Bible, Deuteronomy iv. 2

Neither shall ye diminish aught from it.

(music) To reduce a perfect or minor interval by a semitone.