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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



... do you work so hard, my dear sir," said Isabel, leaning over the old gentleman, and kissing him, in gratitude for his decision. "Surely you can afford to relax ...
— Newton Forster - The Merchant Service • Captain Frederick Marryat
... were profoundly convinced that Art was no luxury of leisure, no mere amusement to charm the idle, or relax the careworn; but a mighty influence, serious in its aims although pleasureable in its means; a sister of Religion, by whose aid the great world-scheme was wrought into ...
— Derrick Vaughan--Novelist • Edna Lyall
... repressing the injuries which difficulties of emigration which bound the associated individuals had to fear them together in a common cause, from one another. It is the sentinel they will begin to relax in their duty who watches, in order that the common and attachment to each other, and this labourers be not disturbed." remissness will point out the necessity of establishing ...
— A Letter Addressed to the Abbe Raynal, on the Affairs of North America, in Which the Mistakes in the Abbe's Account of the Revolution of America Are Corrected and Cleared Up • Thomas Paine
... the hill and clambered up to the summit. The fact that it was Christmas Eve may conceivably have had something to do with the want of vigilance upon the part of the sentries. In a season of good will and conviviality the rigour of military discipline may insensibly relax. Little did the sleeping Yeomen in the tents, or the drowsy outposts upon the crest, think of the terrible Christmas visitors who were creeping on to them, or of the grim morning gift which Santa ...
— The Great Boer War • Arthur Conan Doyle
... that in her tone which showed she perceived the truth, and he knelt by her side kissing her, but not daring to relax ...
— The Daisy Chain, or Aspirations • Charlotte Yonge


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