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Relax   /rɪlˈæks/  /rilˈæks/   Listen
verb
Relax  v. t.  (past & past part. relaxed; pres. part. relaxing)  
1.
To make lax or loose; to make less close, firm, rigid, tense, or the like; to slacken; to loosen; to open; as, to relax a rope or cord; to relax the muscles or sinews. "Horror... all his joints relaxed." "Nor served it to relax their serried files."
2.
To make less severe or rigorous; to abate the stringency of; to remit in respect to strenuousness, earnestness, or effort; as, to relax discipline; to relax one's attention or endeavors. "The statute of mortmain was at several times relaxed by the legislature."
3.
Hence, to relieve from attention or effort; to ease; to recreate; to divert; as, amusement relaxes the mind.
4.
To relieve from constipation; to loosen; to open; as, an aperient relaxes the bowels.
Synonyms: To slacken; loosen; loose; remit; abate; mitigate; ease; unbend; divert.


Relax  v. i.  
1.
To become lax, weak, or loose; as, to let one's grasp relax. "His knees relax with toil."
2.
To abate in severity; to become less rigorous. "In others she relaxed again, And governed with a looser rein."
3.
To remit attention or effort; to become less diligent; to unbend; as, to relax in study.


noun
Relax  n.  Relaxation. (Obs.)


adjective
Relax  adj.  Relaxed; lax; hence, remiss; careless.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Relax" Quotes from Famous Books



... describe, you greatly over-estimated me. What can you lose by a little more softness? I often think that men—particularly good men—make their way through the world too much as if it were a solid mass of iron through which they must cut—as if they dared not relax their hardest edge and finest temper for a moment. Surely, that is not the way to ...
— The Irrational Knot - Being the Second Novel of His Nonage • George Bernard Shaw
... with so much to enjoy in life, and so much to do. It is said that he had premonitions of early death, and tried to prepare the Queen for his going first—but the realization of a loss so immense could not find lodgment in her mind. Yet though often feeling weak and languid, he did not relax his labors—spurring up his flagging powers. He never lost his interest in public affairs, or in his children's affairs of the heart. He was happy in contemplating the happiness of his daughter Alice, and followed with his heart ...
— Queen Victoria, her girlhood and womanhood • Grace Greenwood
... the blazing hearth, (While loud without the blast of winter sung), Now thrill'd with awe, and now relax'd with mirth, Paris, I've roam'd thy varied haunts among, Loitering where Fashion's insect myriads spread Their painted wings, and sport their little day; Anon, by beckoning recollection led To the dark shadow of the stern ABBAYE, ...
— Poems (1828) • Thomas Gent
... sir," at length said one of the boys who sat near him. Lugare, at this intelligence, allow'd his features to relax from their expression of savage anger into a smile, but that smile look'd more malignant if possible, than his former scowls. It might be that he felt amused at the horror depicted on the faces of ...
— Complete Prose Works - Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy • Walt Whitman
... a muscle of his face. You would have thought that he was the least interested man in the room. Only once did his features relax, and that was when the cobbler arrived with his head swathed in bandages. Then a grim smile flickered about the corners of his mouth, as if fate had at last ...
— Fiddles - 1909 • F. Hopkinson Smith


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