slake
Americanverb (used with object)
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slakes,
present (3rd person singular)
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slaked,
past participle, past
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slaking
present participle
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to allay (thirst, desire, wrath, etc.) by satisfying.
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to cool or refresh.
He slaked his lips with ice.
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to make less active, vigorous, intense, etc..
His calm manner slaked their enthusiasm.
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to cause disintegration of (lime) by treatment with water.
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to moisten; wet.
To thicken the sauce, add a tablespoon of cornstarch slaked with a little cold water.
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Obsolete. to make loose or less tense; slacken.
verb (used without object)
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slakes,
present (3rd person singular)
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slaked,
past participle, past
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slaking
present participle
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(of lime) to become slaked.
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Archaic. to become less active, intense, vigorous, etc.; abate.
verb
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literary (tr) to satisfy (thirst, desire, etc)
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poetic (tr) to cool or refresh
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Also: slack. to undergo or cause to undergo the process in which lime reacts with water or moist air to produce calcium hydroxide
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archaic to make or become less active or intense
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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slakernoun
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slakableadjective
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slakeableadjective
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slakelessadjective
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unslakableadjective
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unslakeableadjective
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unslakedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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slakesimple
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slakessimple
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have slakedperfect
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has slakedperfect
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am slakingprogressive
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are slakingprogressive
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is slakingprogressive
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have been slakingperfect progressive
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has been slakingperfect progressive
Past
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slakedsimple
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had slakedperfect
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was slakingprogressive
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were slakingprogressive
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had been slakingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of slake
First recorded before 1000; Middle English slaken, slakken, slake “to loosen, lessen, mitigate, allay, moderate,” Old English slacian, slæcian, sleacian “to slacken, lessen one's efforts,” equivalent to slæc “inactive, careless, languid” + -ian causative verb suffix; see origin at slack 1
Explanation
When you slake something, such as a desire or a thirst, you satisfy it. A big glass of lemonade on a hot summer day will slake your thirst. The word slake traces back to the Old English word slacian, meaning to “become less eager.” If you slake something, like thirst, you become less eager to drink. In other words, you are less thirsty. Like satisfy and quench, close relatives of slake in meaning, the word is used to indicate that a craving is made less intense by getting whatever it is that you crave.
Vocabulary lists containing slake
A Culinary Vocabulary Sampler
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A Tale of Two Cities
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Bless Me, Ultima
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Done with the workweek, they are eager to slake their thirst.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 19, 2025
For what would have been the price of a ticket to the movies, customers also got bottomless soda refills to help slake what many expected would be a vengeful thirst from eating all that popcorn.
From Reuters ● Nov. 28, 2022
Appeasement — the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia in an attempt to slake Hitler’s appetite for conquest — ordained a dark future.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 23, 2022
That left me to slake my pie lust whenever one turned up at church potlucks or extended family gatherings.
From Salon ● Nov. 22, 2022
The fierce beast had made a kill; her jaws were bloody and she was coming to slake her thirst in the spring.
From "Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes" by Edith Hamilton
The lake that slakes the thirst of 40 million people in cities, farms and tribes across seven Southwestern states is down to about 30% of capacity.
From Seattle Times ● May 9, 2022
Zero Dark Thirty slakes a thirst for vengeance and leaves an aftertaste of gall.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 18, 2013
The moguls hide behind a rickety rating system that stokes more fury than it slakes.
From Time Magazine Archive
This book slakes nearly every sense except thirst.
From Time Magazine Archive
O happy eyes that saw Him first; O happy lips that kissed His feet: Earth slakes at last her ancient thirst; With Eden's joy her pulses beat.
From Christmas Its Origin, Celebration and Significance as Related in Prose and Verse by Robert Haven Schauffler
But betel chew—a mixture of areca nuts, betel leaves and slaked lime—is entirely different from datura.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2025
Paan, a betel nut leaf with slaked lime, rose petal jam and mouth fresheners like cardamom and cloves, has fascinated South Asians for centuries.
From BBC ● Dec. 2, 2023
Roman concrete consisted of a mixture of a white powder known as slaked lime, small particles and rock fragments called tephra ejected by volcanic eruptions, and water.
From Science Magazine ● Jan. 5, 2023
Cool without refrigeration, sweet with the taste of earth, nothing slaked the insistent thirst of the tropics better, according to some residents of Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city.
From New York Times ● Oct. 10, 2019
When his thirst was slaked, he pushed the reeds aside.
From "Pax" by Sara Pennypacker
Trainees practiced slaking lime, sieving, mixing and preparing mortar while working on the gate.
From BBC ● Jan. 27, 2023
When it comes to slaking Southern California’s colossal thirst for water, more and more local governments are searching their own sewer lines for a solution.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2022
Thank you for keeping up with slaking our thirst.
From Slate ● Apr. 11, 2020
Depending on the source, you will hear that the Ogallala Aquifer slaking the huge cattle feedlots from Amarillo to Dodge City will be drunk dry in as few as 20 years.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 19, 2018
The slaking of stone-lime should be done in a large pile, and the distribution may be made with lime-spreaders.
From Crops and Methods for Soil Improvement by Alva Agee
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
