English

Verb

slaken

1. Obsolete spelling of slacken
   • 1914, Charles Warren Stoddard, Over the Rocky Mountains to Alaska:

     I was glad when we were very politely invited to get out of the train and walk a plank over a puddle that for a moment submerged the track; glad when we were advised to foot it over a trestle-bridge that sagged in the swift current of a swollen stream; and gladder still when our locomotive began to puff and blow and slaken its pace as we climbed up into the mouth of a ravine fragrant with the warm scents of summer--albeit we could boast but a solitary brace of cars, and these small ones, and not overcrowded at that.

   • 1901, Charles Kingsley, Two Years Ago, Volume I:

     And so she swept in, with her arm round Lucia's waist; while Elsley stood looking after her, well enough satisfied with her reception of him, and only hoping that the stream of words would slaken after a while. "