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Relaxing   /rɪlˈæksɪŋ/  /rilˈæksɪŋ/   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.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Relaxing" Quotes from Famous Books



... grasp on the panther's throat was on the point of relaxing; the brute was digging its claws in the shoulders of the fallen man, and he, feeling faint with loss of blood, looked upon death as it stared down at him from the beast's golden eyes, and all that he was conscious of was the ...
— "Unto Caesar" • Baroness Emmuska Orczy
... convenient jumping-off, or up, place for the work in hand. About the bad hour of 2.30 A.M. the commander was waked by one of his men, who whispered to him: "They've got the chains on us, sir!" Whether it was pure nightmare, an hallucination of long wakefulness, something relaxing and releasing in that packed box of machinery, or the disgustful reality, the commander could not tell, but it had all the makings of panic in it. So the Lord and long training put it into his ...
— Sea Warfare • Rudyard Kipling
... through a well-established cattle-gap into a very rushy, squashy, gorse-grown pasture, at the bottom of the rising ground on which Mr. Sponge had marked the birds. Ponto, whose energetic exertions had been gradually relaxing, until he had settled down to a leisurely hunting-dog, suddenly stood transfixed, with the right foot up, and his gaze settled ...
— Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour • R. S. Surtees
... for such it is, I must confess—an error into which it was natural that they should fall. What motives could a Protestant have for intruding upon their privacy? What interest could he take in inspecting the economy of their establishment? So far, however, from relaxing in their attention after this discovery, their politeness visibly increased, though, perhaps, a scrutinizing observer might have detected a shade of less ...
— The Bible in Spain • George Borrow
... to differences between Russia and England respecting Malta and our maritime code. The Czar insisted on our relinquishing Malta and relaxing the rigours of the right of search for deserters from our navy. To this the Pitt Ministry demurred, seeing that Malta was our only means of protecting the Mediterranean States, and our only security against French aggressions in the Levant, while the right of searching neutral vessels ...
— The Life of Napoleon I (Volumes, 1 and 2) • John Holland Rose


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