What's the difference between douse and slacken?

Douse


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To plunge suddenly into water; to duck; to immerse; to dowse.
  • (v. t.) To strike or lower in haste; to slacken suddenly; as, douse the topsail.
  • (v. i.) To fall suddenly into water.
  • (v. t.) To put out; to extinguish.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) It has brought waves of Australian diplomats and functionaries implementing strategies to douse local disgruntlement at the profound social, cultural, environmental and economic impacts their operation has brought.
  • (2) In London there are generally four types of rock show: the billions of pub gigs where 20 of the band's mates try to convince you there's still a future in grindie; the arena and stadium blowouts where it's customary to express one's appreciation of the band by dousing one's peers in airborne urine; the east London artronica happenings where everyone's only watching everyone else; and the gigs in Hyde Park you can't hear.
  • (3) Hayes-White said first responders told her they saw people at the edge of the bay dousing themselves with water, possibly to cool burn injuries.
  • (4) One by one, the rain having slowed, the men turn the bucket's plastic tap and douse their hands in the life-saving water.
  • (5) El Niño, the weather system which often douses the western US, has returned after a five-year absence but promises little relief.
  • (6) Cameron has spent much of a three-day visit to the US battling to douse the Eurosceptic fires caused by the rise of Ukip.
  • (7) There are gates cleverly constructed from plastic crates and mail boxes fashioned from a oil cans, all liberally doused in bright blues and pinks, greens and yellows, tying each assemblage into a carefully crafted home.
  • (8) We buy – and companies supply – food doused in high-fructose corn syrup, delivering a sugar high that is hard to resist, but devoid of nutrition.
  • (9) Security forces shot him before they doused the flames.
  • (10) According to his lawyers , he was forced to stay awake for nine days, denied food, doused in freezing water and made to stand on concrete in the winter for 16 hours.
  • (11) Surely any warm glow we might feel about HMV nostalgia deserves dousing with the news that gift vouchers some bought at the shop over Christmas are now invalid .
  • (12) Fire engines stood by to douse flames, including in one shop that was set on fire, but the protests appear to have ended without deaths or significant injuries, unlike previous violent protests against the burning of copies of the Qur'an by a US pastor and US troops, when several people died.
  • (13) Smoke billows into the air as a firefighter douses the fire at the Glasgow School of Art's Charles Rennie Mackintosh building.
  • (14) The video appeared to show vulnerable residents being pinned down, slapped, doused in water and taunted.
  • (15) Rahman had been left in a cold cell, stripped from the waist down and had been doused in water, according to reports from the Associated Press .
  • (16) The drama bounces from Texas to Mississippi on the cusp of the civil war, effects a shotgun wedding of 60s spaghetti western with 70s "slavesploitation" and douses the magnolia in arterial blood.
  • (17) A kung pao chicken appetizer was made with chicken McNuggets doused in sweet and sour sauce and garnished with parsley.
  • (18) When Scotland got their goal back it could have been a bit edgy, but we responded fantastically and it was very special for me to score two goals for England in Scotland at Celtic Park.” Gordon Strachan admitted his players had been “spooked” by England’s energetic opening as they slipped to only a second defeat in 11 games to douse some of the optimism generated by Friday’s victory over the Republic of Ireland .
  • (19) Mirallas and Naismith were involved again as Everton doused any hope Arsenal had of salvaging pride in the second half.
  • (20) As Indonesia deployed planes and a fourth helicopter to help douse the fires in Riau province, Sumatra, much of southern Malaysia was shrouded in thick smog.

Slacken


Definition:

  • (a.) To become slack; to be made less tense, firm, or rigid; to decrease in tension; as, a wet cord slackens in dry weather.
  • (a.) To be remiss or backward; to be negligent.
  • (a.) To lose cohesion or solidity by a chemical combination with water; to slake; as, lime slacks.
  • (a.) To abate; to become less violent.
  • (a.) To lose rapidity; to become more slow; as, a current of water slackens.
  • (a.) To languish; to fail; to flag.
  • (a.) To end; to cease; to desist; to slake.
  • (v. t.) To render slack; to make less tense or firm; as, to slack a rope; to slacken a bandage.
  • (v. t.) To neglect; to be remiss in.
  • (v. t.) To deprive of cohesion by combining chemically with water; to slake; as, to slack lime.
  • (v. t.) To cause to become less eager; to repress; to make slow or less rapid; to retard; as, to slacken pursuit; to slacken industry.
  • (v. t.) To cause to become less intense; to mitigate; to abate; to ease.
  • (n.) A spongy, semivitrifled substance which miners or smelters mix with the ores of metals to prevent their fusion.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Torque pulses (of 10 or 100 msec) injected randomly to load or unload the movements stretched or slackened the appropiate prime movers: biceps or triceps.
  • (2) Although the rate of growth has slackened somewhat during recent years, the private pension movement is now a major contributor to the income maintenance needs of the American worker during retirement.
  • (3) While the slackening of the woof and the dimension of the meshes are minimal at both the beginning and end of the cycle, they reach a maximum on forteenth day.
  • (4) Increasing doses led to a negative inotropic effect with slackened relaxation and loss of its load sensitivity (up to 390 mumol l-1 for sulmazole; up to 350 mumol-1 for theophylline).
  • (5) Our findings suggest a mechanism eventually leading to slackening of the cervical spine ligamentous apparatus and atlantoaxial subluxation in RA.
  • (6) The result is diminished uterine volume and slackening of the myometrium.
  • (7) This also raises the question to what extent these fears become manifest because of a slackening of the defence mechanisms.
  • (8) The collagen fibres in this case stretch out and the skin tension slackens.
  • (9) The potential for slackened physician-patient relationships, however, could jeopardize that quality.
  • (10) One is the mobilization of a global effort to develop and test technologies, where the available technologies are not satisfactory to meet the needs and where the research is slackening.
  • (11) Blepharochalasis implies the symptom or general term (Kettesy) applied to the slackening and thinning out of the upper lid.
  • (12) After strong growth in the first six months of the year, the pace of growth in manufacturing has also slackened as a result of weaker demand from key markets including Europe and China.” Taken as a whole the UK’s economy is now 3.4% above its pre-crisis peak in the first quarter of 2008.
  • (13) 10 (11 p.cent) died within one month of surgery, but slackening of the sutures was an attributable cause in none of these cases.
  • (14) So over the coming months, far from slackening, you'll see the rate of change and reform at the BBC go faster and deeper.
  • (15) The Tumble is hard but it slackens off after a couple of kilometres so it’s hard to pull out a lot of time.
  • (16) Vmax was also determined by a procedure in which the cell length was slackened and the time of unloaded shortening was recorded (slack test).
  • (17) The sales pattern of the aerosols altered, showing a slackening of the rate of increase of sales in 1966 and 1967.
  • (18) Its growth rate and cellular structure were observed over the subsequent 19 months, the former remaining constant for the first 14 months, then slackening markedly during the final 4 months.
  • (19) On debt and taxation, rich and poor countries are worlds apart | Tove Maria Ryding Read more “Already, several countries have turned to multilateral lending institutions, such as the IMF and the World Bank, in order to obtain financial assistance: Angola, Azerbaijan, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Zambia and Zimbabwe have already asked for bailouts or are in talks to do so.” The trade and development report said that against a backdrop of falling commodity prices and slackening growth in the developed world, borrowing costs for poor countries had been “driven up very quickly, turning what seemed reasonable debt burdens under favourable conditions into largely unsustainable debt.
  • (20) In another welcome sign of rebalancing, exports to non-EU countries were up by 3.5% ( full details here ) Photograph: ISTAT 9.25am BST Draghi is also warning that eurozone governments must not slacken off the pace of reform - a familiar refrain for the ECB chief: Thanks to their consolidation efforts so far, the primary fiscal deficit for the euro area has fallen from 3.5% of GDP in 2009 to around 0.5% in 2012.