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Relent vs Revoke - What's the difference?

relent | revoke |

As nouns the difference between relent and revoke

is that relent is stay; stop; delay while revoke is the act of revoking in a game of cards.

As verbs the difference between relent and revoke

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 revoke is to cancel or invalidate by withdrawing or reversing.

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.

    revoke

    English

    Verb

  • To cancel or invalidate by withdrawing or reversing
    • Your driver's license will be revoked .
  • To fail to follow suit in a game of cards when holding a card in that suit.
  • (obsolete) To call or bring back; to recall.
  • * Spenser
    • The faint sprite he did revoke again, / To her frail mansion of morality.
  • (obsolete) To hold back; to repress; to restrain.
  • * Spenser
    • [She] still strove their sudden rages to revoke .
  • (obsolete) To draw back; to withdraw.
    • (Spenser)
  • (obsolete) To call back to mind; to recollect.
  • * South
    • A man, by revoking and recollecting within himself former passages, will be still apt to inculcate these sad memories to his conscience.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of revoking in a game of cards.
  • A renege; a violation of important rules regarding the play of tricks in trick-taking card games serious enough to render the round invalid.
  • A violation ranked in seriousness somewhat below overt cheating, with the status of a more minor offense only because, when it happens, it is usually accidental.