What's the difference between assent and relent?

Assent


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To admit a thing as true; to express one's agreement, acquiescence, concurrence, or concession.
  • (v.) The act of assenting; the act of the mind in admitting or agreeing to anything; concurrence with approval; consent; agreement; acquiescence.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The Dominions of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa have assented to the new legislation, and the Free State Dail meets to-day.
  • (2) On the day royal assent was finally given to the coalition's controversial Energy Act, the EU's executive arm expressed doubts that British ministers could justify state aid to nuclear which it estimated could reach £17bn.
  • (3) The vast majority of EU states opposed the shift, but assented in order to preserve a semblance of unified policy.
  • (4) The bill gives the unions only three months to get a union member’s signature assenting to the payment of the levy.
  • (5) Since then, the HS2 paving bill has received royal assent and the Commons has overwhelmingly passed two readings of the hybrid bill – essentially the planning application for the London-Birmingham part of the eventual network – and the supreme court has dismissed appeals for a judicial review.
  • (6) As things stand, an agreed bill must be finalised by the Commons no later than 28 February so that it can receive royal assent and become law.
  • (7) The prime minister had been expected to swiftly invoke article 50, the formal two-year process for exiting the EU, after the bill’s royal assent, with reports previously suggesting she would do so this week.
  • (8) Before the bill had even reached royal assent, rumours began to circulate that new legislation was in the pipeline that would academise every school in England by 2020.
  • (9) November 2013 After a final vote expected in October 2013, the Queen is expected to give royal assent to the referendum bill.
  • (10) He added: "The constitution requires that the president must assent to and sign the bill referred to him or her by the national assembly.
  • (11) If Greening gives the go-ahead, construction of the London-to-Birmingham route will be authorised in a parliamentary bill that would receive royal assent in 2015, with building expected to begin the following year.
  • (12) If the family still refuses assenting to therapy after having been confronted with the severe consequences of this disease, the therapist has to decide by himself whether he initiates inpatient treatment even against the patient's will - so far as his life is in danger.
  • (13) The police reform and social responsibility bill received royal assent a couple of weeks ago, meaning she is now able to visit the UK, he said.
  • (14) The UK was set to make history last night when the climate change bill received royal assent and brought into law the world's first legally binding targets for a nation to cut its greenhouse gas emissions.
  • (15) Along these lines, Beck describes Fury as a “a big socialist”, probably to get his goat, but Fury simply nods his assent.
  • (16) We have disclosed everyone who has donated from the time of royal assent in accord with our commitment.
  • (17) He advised the Queen to create an annual Queen’s medal for music, to which she assented.
  • (18) Many people in the Catholic third of the population had never given their assent to its existence.
  • (19) If King, an apostle of non-violence and advocate for the poorest of the poor, were alive today, what would he make of President Obama's careless-with-life drone assassinations, his bullying of journalists and whistleblowers, his assent to slashing Social Security via his Scrooge-like "deficit commission"?
  • (20) "It's far better for us to be in a process where we are both looking for change, and require mutual assent, than for us to agree the situation for the other EU countries, and then ask them to agree for changes for the UK.

Relent


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To become less rigid or hard; to yield; to dissolve; to melt; to deliquesce.
  • (v. i.) 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.
  • (v. t.) To slacken; to abate.
  • (v. t.) To soften; to dissolve.
  • (v. t.) To mollify ; to cause to be less harsh or severe.
  • (n.) Stay; stop; delay.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) There was no chance of Visca relenting and in the 32nd minute he crossed for Zukanovic, whose weak header was saved easily by Darren Randolph.
  • (2) Anas, a nurse, had wanted her children to stay but she relented and sold her gold jewellery when her son Salim found a way to get to Brazil, where he now has asylum after failing to reach the US.
  • (3) His face was found carved into tree trunks all over Celtic lands and his hold over the early Britons was so powerful that early Christians relented and adopted the green man's image as a force for good and a symbol of new life and renewal.
  • (4) Initially, the Cabinet Office resisted giving details of Nesta's investment saying it was commercially confidential, but later relented following advice from the audit office.
  • (5) But I also take seriously my responsibility to the American people Barack Obama Asked by Republican governors on Monday whether he might relent in the case of a pipeline extension that supporters argue will have negligible impact on greenhouse gas emissions but has been a totemic issue for environmentalists, Obama reportedly told the group it “ain’t gonna happen”.
  • (6) But he'd usually relent and read them by Wednesday."
  • (7) Kim Davis is out of jail – will she relent and issue same-sex marriage licenses?
  • (8) By the time people relent and sign on, they've exhausted every option.
  • (9) When the broadcasters relented and included the Greens, the prime minister suggested that the Democratic Unionist Party should be included.
  • (10) Apple has relented and sweetly smooth MMS implementation is now available.
  • (11) "I am surprised at this decision since China wants to promote openness and the rule of law, and I hope that they will relent and let me in.
  • (12) Fearful of the connections his son had been forming back home, his father reportedly confiscated Abedi’s passport, relenting only when his son told him he was going on a pilgrimage to Mecca.
  • (13) Patrick Bamford signs new Chelsea deal and makes Crystal Palace loan move Read more Mourinho maintains the Premier League champions have dealt with the move for the 21-year-old, which could break the record for an English defender, in the correct manner and he will not relent in his pursuit.
  • (14) Thus, unless factors independent of or complicating the calcium stone disease supervene, the renal insufficiency of treated patients remains mild and relently progressive.
  • (15) When he wouldn't relent, she draped him with a white rosary for safe passage.
  • (16) Miliband relented, and Balls took the exam, including clapping rhythmically, in the formal, unforgiving atmosphere music examiners love to generate.
  • (17) Merkel is apparently in Paris on Monday to thrash this issue out with Sarkozy, just four days ahead of the next EU Summit but Merkel is extremely unlikely to relent.
  • (18) But Cameron was forced to relent and let loose the Eurosceptics in cabinet, who have fanned out to hit the Sunday papers and broadcasts.
  • (19) The Kremlin, whose long slide into autocracy shows no sign of relenting, made deals with several of them, knowing it would be easier to keep them on side than to open up Russia's economy to proper procedures, competition, and fair trade.
  • (20) But he said that it would give Channel 4 more flexibility in how the programming budget was spent, assuming the advertising recession relents.