Relent

//ɹɪˈlɛnt// adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A stay; a stop; a delay.

    "There was no relent, my dear, as we pulled each other in."

  2. 2
    A relenting. obsolete
Verb
  1. 1
    To give in or be swayed; to become less hard, harsh, or cruel; to show clemency. intransitive

    "He had planned to ground his son for a month, but relented and decided to give him a stern lecture instead."

  2. 2
    give in, as to influence or pressure wordnet
  3. 3
    To slacken; to abate. intransitive

    "We waited for the storm to relent before we ventured outside."

  4. 4
    To lessen, make less severe or intense. obsolete, transitive

    "But nothing might relent her hastie flight; / So deepe the deadly feare of that foule swaine / Was earst impressed in her gentle spright […]"

  5. 5
    To become less rigid or hard; to soften; to yield, for example by dissolving or melting dated, intransitive

    "[Salt of tartar] placed in a cellar will […] begin to relent."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Softhearted; yielding. obsolete

Synonyms

All synonyms
yieldabateabdicateabdicateaccedeaccept

Example

More examples

"So spake he, on his purpose firmly bent. / We – wife, child, family and I – with prayer / and tears entreat the father to relent, / nor doom us all the common wreck to share, / and urge the ruin that the Fates prepare."

Etymology

From Middle English relenten, from Anglo-Norman relentir, from Latin re- + lentare (“to bend”), from lentus (“soft, pliant, slow”). Earliest recording dates to 1526.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.