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:
Long before TLC rebranded from The Learning Channel to the home of Honey Boo-Boo and "Dr. Pimple Popper," Springer drained the human soul's pus before raving studio audiences to slake the guilty pleasure of millions.
From Salon ● Apr. 28, 2023
EnoTrans focused on “overcustomization” by Sound Transit to slake community demands, and the average five-year planning phase.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 2, 2023
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
Without the sun there would be no waters formed to slake the dark earth's thirst.
From "Bless Me, Ultima" by Rudolfo Anaya
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
Orange juice from National Juice Corp. slakes their thirst.
From Time Magazine Archive
This book slakes nearly every sense except thirst.
From Time Magazine Archive
The only good is inward good; and this water of life slakes our thirst because it flows into the deepest place of our being, and abides there for ever.
From Expositions of Holy Scripture St. John Chapters I to XIV by Alexander Maclaren
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
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
How much heat, in kilojoules, is associated with the production of 1 ton of slaked lime?
From Textbooks ● Feb. 14, 2019
In downtown Beijing, parched commuters have traditionally slaked their thirsts with fruit juice or tea but many are following the global craft beer boom and turning to refreshing pale ales.
From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2016
Once he’d slaked the thirst, he sat up and looked around.
From "The Amber Spyglass" by Philip Pullman
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
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
But the truth didn’t shake my faith in Oly pride, which bubbles up like the artesian well water that has been slaking Olympian thirsts for centuries.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 12, 2018
This is obtained by heating ground limestone and slaking it by adding water.
From A Living from the Land by William B. Duryee
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.
