Verb
relent (third-person singular simple present relents, present participle relenting, simple past and past participle relented)
- (intransitive) To give in or be swayed; to become less hard, harsh, or cruel; to show clemency.
He had planned to ground his son for a month, but relented and decided to give him a stern lecture instead.
1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:Can you, my Lord of Winchester, behold
My sighs and tears and will not once relent?
1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC:Only the valley where Sish rested when he and Time were young did Sish not provoke his hours to assail. There he restrained his old hound Time […] For the minds of the gods relent towards their earliest memories, who relent not otherwise at all.
1989, Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day:I did, I suppose, hope that she might finally relent a little and make some conciliatory response or other.
- (intransitive) To slacken; to abate.
We waited for the storm to relent before we ventured outside.
He will not relent in his effort to reclaim his victory.
- (obsolete, transitive) To lessen, make less severe or intense.
- (dated, intransitive, of substance) To become less rigid or hard; to soften; to yield, for example by dissolving or melting
1669, Robert Boyle, The History of Fluidity and Firmness:[Salt of tartar] placed in a cellar will […] begin to relent.
1717, Alexander Pope, “Eloisa to Abelard”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, →OCLC:When opening buds salute the welcome day, / And earth, relenting, feels the genial ray.
Translations
become less severe, give in