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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
relent
verb
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Dobbs finally relented and gave an interview to "People" magazine.
▪ He begged and begged to be allowed to go to the game, and in the end I relented.
▪ Marjorie finally relented and agreed to meet him.
▪ Prison officials relented and allowed Wilson to receive visits from his family.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But Milosevic shows no sign he is willing to relent beyond token concessions.
▪ I imagined Ly Keang would relent, as she looked over her shoulder; but instead she increased her pace.
▪ Nothing they heard from New Hampshire gave them reason to relent in the slightest.
▪ Only the threat of a federal law suit moved the Park District to relent and end the weeks of obstruction.
▪ Only when police arrived with threats of £5,000 fines did they relent.
▪ Perhaps Ray would relent, or the community would ignore him.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Relent

Relent \Re*lent"\ (r?-l?nt"), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Relented; p. pr. & vb. n. Relenting.] [F. ralentir, fr. L. pref. re- re- + ad to + lentus pliant, flexible, slow. See Lithe.]

  1. To become less rigid or hard; to yield; to dissolve; to melt; to deliquesce. [Obs.]

    He stirred the coals till relente gan The wax again the fire.
    --Chaucer.

    [Salt of tartar] placed in a cellar will . . . begin to relent.
    --Boyle.

    When opening buds salute the welcome day, And earth, relenting, feels the genial ray.
    --Pope.

  2. To become less severe or intense; to become less hard, harsh, cruel, or the like; to soften in temper; to become more mild and tender; to feel compassion.

    Can you . . . behold My sighs and tears, and will not once relent?
    --Shak.

Relent

Relent \Re*lent"\, v. t.

  1. To slacken; to abate. [Obs.]

    And oftentimes he would relent his pace.
    --Spenser.

  2. To soften; to dissolve. [Obs.]

  3. To mollify; to cause to be less harsh or severe. [Obs.]

Relent

Relent \Re*lent"\ (r?-l?nt"), n. Stay; stop; delay. [Obs.]

Nor rested till she came without relent Unto the land of Amazons.
--Spenser.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
relent

late 14c., "to melt, soften, dissolve," from re- + Latin lentus "slow, viscous, supple" (see lithe), perhaps on model of Old French rallentir. Sense of "become less harsh or cruel" first recorded 1520s. The notion probably is of a hard heart melting with pity. Related: Relented; relenting.

Wiktionary
relent

n. stay; stop; delay. vb. 1 To become less severe or intense; to become less hard, harsh, or cruel; to soften in temper; to become more mild and tender; to feel compassion. 2 To slacken; to abate. 3 (context obsolete transitive English) To lessen, make less severe or fast. 4 (context dated English) To become less rigid or hard; to soften; to yield; to dissolve; to melt; to deliquesce.

WordNet
relent

v. give in, as to influence or pressure [syn: yield, soften] [ant: stand]

Usage examples of "relent".

Ole Golly finally relented and went back and got a blanket with which she lined the inside.

Seeing that she was about to seriously offend her henchwoman, Deanna relented.

But the gods made no answer and shewed no relenting, nor did they give any favouring sign when he prayed to them in dream, and invoked them sacrificially through the bearded priests of Nasht and Kaman-Thah, whose cavern-temple with its pillar of flame lies not far from the gates of the waking world.

At first he had been reluctant, but when told that El Mirador was not to be close-guarded at home, only out in public places, he relented.

I have done everything I can to avert war but the pakeha will not relent and are determined they should have land in the Taranaki, land the Maori do not wish to sell.

He guarded Cassandra like a mother, keeping everyone but Oric away from her, relenting only when his wife cried for Jancis.

Atretes said, relenting now that he had the information for which he had come.

And I see strange faces in my sleep and in my waking, all mocking at me, and they torture and aunt met and when I look at those faces I see no human relenting, no!

They rested not on the face of the editor nor on the pitying brows of his relenting judges.

I bullied Swithe and Cobweb to take me into Galhea with them and occasionally they would relent and we would go into the town, perhaps to eat at the best inn, where they treated us like royalty, or to walk in the market where traders would respectfully entreat us to inspect their wares.

Having got this grudge off his chest, Tapper relented and pulled in to allow Chipper to pass.

During frequent fits of temper, Sapphire called Toret all sorts of names and threw herself into sorrowful pouts until he relented to her whims.

Antipathetic at first towards the superintendent, and not encouraged to greater charity by the reports of persecution she received from her incipient boyfriend, DC Hat Bowler, she had relented her attitude in the aftermath of the Wordman case when she had come to see that, no matter what his outward semblance seemed to indicate, Dalziel was deeply defensive of his young officer and determined that no official crap should come his way.

In 1901, some eleven years after the expiration of the antisocialist laws, the state relented.

Whether she regretted having given him as much encouragement as lay in a rose dropped from her corsage, or whether she resented the introduction into the party of so unprepossessing a gentleman as Mr Gumley, no one could tell, but although she relented towards him from time to time, even allowing her hand to rest in his for a moment longer than was necessary when he handed her down from the barouche, she was for the most part a little pettish in her manner, and made it plain that he could do nothing to please her.