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Have no fear, the Word of the Day is here to slake your thirst for knowledge. The uses of slake are varied and fluid. Its most common meaning is synonymous with satisfy or quench—one can slake anything from curiosity to literal thirst. In chemistry, slake can mean "to cause a substance to heat and crumble by treatment with water," and is used specifically in the noun phrase slaked lime, which refers to a compound used in binding agents such as plaster and cement. The word has some obsolete meanings as well: in Shakespearean times, slake meant "to subside or abate" or "to lessen the force of." The most erudite word enthusiasts may also be aware of earlier meanings of slake, such as "to slacken one’s efforts" or "to cause to be relaxed or loose." These early meanings recall the word’s Old English ancestor sleac, which not only meant "slack" but is also slack’s source.
Examples of slake in a Sentence
Tribune News Service, Hartford Courant, 28 Jan. 2024
Absent that, the all-new 7th generation Mustang will slake most of your thirst for a Pony car experience.
—Josh Max, Forbes, 29 Mar. 2024
Normally, quicklime is slaked in water long before use in construction.
—Reuters, NBC News, 25 Mar. 2024
And oh, yes, local beer breweries such as UNION Craft and Peabody Heights breweries will be there to slake the folks’ collective thirst.
—Reader Commentary, Baltimore Sun, 23 Jan. 2024
See all Example Sentences for slake 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'slake.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near slake
Cite this Entry
“Slake.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slake. Accessed 4 Jul. 2024.
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