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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
lenient
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
more
▪ With regard to crimes that are known about, the police and courts may be more lenient with female offenders.
▪ That is a nearly four-fold increase over the number who lost out under the old, more lenient rules.
▪ In the mid 1970s Soviet emigration policies became more lenient.
▪ The students argued that the school discriminated against them by applying more lenient standards to minority applicants.
▪ This would be reflected in a more lenient sentence of 30 months.
▪ Federal agencies are more lenient that in the past.
▪ It is curious to note how much more lenient society is to the cheat than to the spoil-sport.
▪ He will press for stricter, not more lenient, pollution controls.
too
▪ Many argue that such an appeal by the Crown against too lenient a sentence is simply not cricket.
▪ Paul who were supposedly too earthly in their pastoral concerns and too lenient in enforcing doctrine and liturgical standards.
▪ In the view of the Court the sentence was too lenient.
▪ Stacey Koon was too lenient, in violation of federal sentencing guidelines.
▪ They are too lenient: that makes it flattering.
▪ While supporting change to allow the Crown the right of appeal against too lenient sentences, I would advocate another change.
▪ Your father's too lenient to people like Tommaso.
▪ Without question, many judges and sheriffs are far too lenient in sentencing people found guilty of violent crimes.
unduly
▪ Special considerations: the Attorney General invited the Court to review the sentence on the ground that it was unduly lenient.
▪ The judge agreed that it was unduly lenient.
■ NOUN
sentence
▪ Hanging would seem quite a lenient sentence considering the enormity of his crime in those harsh old days.
▪ This would be reflected in a more lenient sentence of 30 months.
▪ Ian Dobkin, defending, asked for a lenient sentence.
▪ Since 1988 the Crown has also been able to appeal in certain circumstances against lenient sentences.
▪ While supporting change to allow the Crown the right of appeal against too lenient sentences, I would advocate another change.
▪ Prosecutors asked for lenient sentences of between six and 10 years because they accepted the defendants were following orders.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a very lenient sentence
▪ He was given a comparatively lenient fine.
▪ His parents are too lenient with him.
▪ Some police officers have criticized judges for being too lenient with car thieves and burglars.
▪ The prosecution lawyer challenged the sentence as being unduly lenient.
▪ The younger teachers generally had a more lenient attitude towards their students.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ After a hundred miles he grew lenient and took out bread-and-butter sandwiches from the back of the car.
▪ He will press for stricter, not more lenient, pollution controls.
▪ In the mid 1970s Soviet emigration policies became more lenient.
▪ Many argue that such an appeal by the Crown against too lenient a sentence is simply not cricket.
▪ People say she was lenient with me.
▪ That is a nearly four-fold increase over the number who lost out under the old, more lenient rules.
▪ With regard to crimes that are known about, the police and courts may be more lenient with female offenders.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Lenient

Lenient \Le"ni*ent\ (l[=e]"n[i^]*ent or l[=e]n"yent), a. [L. leniens, -entis, p. pr. of lenire to soften, fr. lenis soft, mild. Cf. Lithe.]

  1. Relaxing; emollient; softening; assuasive; -- sometimes followed by of. ``Lenient of grief.''
    --Milton.

    O?? relax the fibers, are lenient, balsamic.
    --Arbuthnot.

    Time, that on all things lays his lenient hand.
    --Pope.

  2. Mild; clement; merciful; not rigorous or severe; as, a lenient disposition; a lenient judge or sentence.

Lenient

Lenient \Le"ni*ent\, n. (Med.) A lenitive; an emollient.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
lenient

1650s, "relaxing, soothing," from Middle French lenient, from Latin lenientem (nominative leniens), present participle of lenire "to soften, alleviate, mitigate, allay, calm," from lenis "mild, gentle, calm," probably from PIE root *le- "to leave, yield, let go, slacken" (cognates: Lithuanian lenas "quiet, tranquil, tame, slow," Old Church Slavonic lena "lazy," Latin lassus "faint, weary," Old English læt "sluggish, slow," lætan "to leave behind"). Sense of "mild, merciful" (of persons) first recorded 1787. In earlier use was lenitive, attested from early 15c. of medicines, 1610s of persons.

Wiktionary
lenient

a. lax; tolerant of deviation; permissive; not strict. n. (context medicine English) A lenitive; an emollient.

WordNet
lenient
  1. adj. tolerant or lenient; "indulgent parents risk spoiling their children"; "procedures are lax and discipline is weak"; "too soft on the children" [syn: indulgent, lax, soft]

  2. not strict; "an easy teacher"; "easy standards"; "lenient rules" [syn: easy]

  3. characterized by tolerance and mercy

Usage examples of "lenient".

As always, our point is that a double standard should not be employed in the evaluation of paleoanthropological evidencean impossibly strict standard for anomalous evidence and an exceedingly lenient standard for acceptable evidence.

As the girl, by whose beauty I was struck, did not understand the game, I offered her a seat by the fire, asking her to grant me the honour of keeping her company, whereupon the elderly woman who had brought her began to laugh, and said I should have some difficulty in getting her niece to talk about anything, adding, in a polite manner, that she hoped I would be lenient with her as she had only just left a convent.

And to this craving after prose, who would not be lenient, that has at all known life, with its usual predominance of our lower and less courageous selves, our constant hankering after the cosey closed door and line of least resistance?

At the present day there is a gradual tendency to make punishment more lenient and more certain--to remove the entanglements of the pleader, and render progress towards substantial instead of technical justice more sure and speedy.

But the more lenient government showed itself, the more bold and insolent the repealers became.

The United States ambassador in Athens at the time was Henry Tasca, a Nixon and Kissinger crony with a very lenient attitude to the dictatorship.

I shall at all events be more lenient in my judgement of him, and less stern in my allocutions, for I shall have no text to preach from.

But it was lenient with Gregorig, who had called Iro a cowardly blatherskite in debate.

They might have been less lenient with Marle had they felt his stalling would help him.

Mevrouw Pette was full of praise for her hard work, congratulating herself silently for having been lenient with her pupil over the last few days.

Disconcerted by this damning evidence of indigestion, his countenance showed that he considered himself to have been too lenient to the wine of an unhusbanded hostess.

Emir in a lenient mood, then feed the appropriate words to a voice synthesizer and get the anesthetist off the hook.

He knew that Major - de Coverley was his executive officer, but he did not know what that meant, and he could not decide whether in Major - de Coverley he was blessed with a lenient superior or cursed with a delinquent subordinate.

You be a mere novice in the craft, after all, and even old Gurjan might be lenient on you, this being your first time out and all.

It has been described in a previous chapter how Lord Kitchener made an offer to the burghers which amounted to an amnesty, and how a number of those Boers who had come under the influence of the British formed themselves into peace committees, and endeavoured to convey to the fighting commandos some information as to the hopelessness of the struggle, and the lenient mood of the British.