Etymology From Middle English relenten, from Anglo-Norman relentir, from Latin re- + lentare (“to bend”), from lentus (“soft, pliant, slow”). Earliest recording dates to 1526. The noun is from the verb.
1
To give in or be swayed; to become less hard, harsh, or cruel; to show clemency.
He had planned to ground his son for a month, but relented and decided to give him a stern lecture instead.
Can you, my Lord of Winchester, behold My sighs and tears and will not once relent?1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
2 more examples
Only the valley where Sish rested when he and Time were young did Sish not provoke his hours to assail. There he restrained his old hound Time […] For the minds of the gods relent towards their earliest memories, who relent not otherwise at all.1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC:
I did, I suppose, hope that she might finally relent a little and make some conciliatory response or other.1989, Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day:
2
To slacken; to abate.
We waited for the storm to relent before we ventured outside.
He will not relent in his effort to reclaim his victory.
1 more example
WORF: When my foster brother and I were of age, we entered the Starfleet Academy. He hated it and returned to Gault. I stayed. KONMEL: You have not spent much time among your own kind. WORF: Hardly none. KORRIS: So, when the night was still and quiet, and the sound of the blood rushing through your veins filled your ears, the only way to silence it was to slip out into the night and, like the hunter that spawned you, join in the struggle of life and death. You were unable KONMEL: And those around you did not understand. You frightened them. KORRIS: They shunned you. Cursed you. Called you vile names, and you knew not why. Even now do you know why you are driven? Why you cannot relent or repent or confess or abstain? How could you know? There have been no other Klingons to lead you to that knowledge. WORF: Yes. Yes, those feelings are part of me. But I control them. They do not rule me. KORRIS: Yes. To fit in, the humans demand that you change the one thing that you cannot change. Yet, because you cannot, you do. That too is the mark of the warrior. You said that I mock you. I do not. I salute you.1988 March 21, Heart of Glory (Star Trek: The Next Generation) (Science Fiction), Paramount Domestic Television, →OCLC:
But nothing might relent her hastie flight; / So deepe the deadly feare of that foule swaine / Was earst impressed in her gentle spright […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
4
Dated, Of substance To become less rigid or hard; to soften; to yield, for example by dissolving or melting
[Salt of tartar] placed in a cellar will […] begin to relent.1669, Robert Boyle, The History of Fluidity and Firmness:
When opening buds salute the welcome day, / And earth, relenting, feels the genial ray.1717, Alexander Pope, “Eloisa to Abelard”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, →OCLC:
Etymology From Middle English relenten, from Anglo-Norman relentir, from Latin re- + lentare (“to bend”), from lentus (“soft, pliant, slow”). Earliest recording dates to 1526. The noun is from the verb.
1
A stay; a stop; a delay.
There was no relent, my dear, as we pulled each other in.2015, Mel Parsons, “First Sign of Trouble”:
The pistons of this engine moved without relent.2016, Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad, Fleet (2017), page 193:
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She forward went[…] Ne rested till she came without relent Unto the land of Amazons.1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
Etymology From Middle English relenten, from Anglo-Norman relentir, from Latin re- + lentare (“to bend”), from lentus (“soft, pliant, slow”). Earliest recording dates to 1526. The noun is from the verb.