Slake (lime) ***

slake



Y

使(石灰) 熟化



D



–verb (used with object) 

1. to allay (thirst, desire, wrath, etc.) by satisfying.

2. to cool or refresh: He slaked his lips with ice. 

3. to make less active, vigorous, intense, etc.: His calm manner slaked their enthusiasm. 

4. to cause disintegration of (lime) (石灰) by treatment with water. Compare slaked lime.

5. Obsolete. to make loose or less tense; slacken. 



–verb (used without object) 

6. (of lime) to become slaked.

7. Archaic. to become less active, intense, vigorous, etc.; abate. 





C



slack, slacken, slake (vv.)   

 

Slack is used most frequently with off or up and means "to ease up, slow down, or fail to do your part": We slacked [off] against a weaker team and ended by being beaten. 



To slacken is "to ease off, take the strain off, or slow the pace": You must slacken your [speed] on the turns. 



Slack and slacken are each both transitive and intransitive. 



To slake (rhymes with lake) thirst is "to satisfy it"; to slake (also rhymes with lake) lime is "to moisten it," but you can also slack (rhymes with tack) lime to achieve the same end.





　

Where Aristotle’s theory of tragedy had relied on catharsis (the climactic [purging] and mastery of our terror, as we witness overpowering deeds), Haneke seemed to suggest that recent cinema has cheapened such slaking of emotion [into] a near-pornographic fake: we are crazed and cheered by shuddering events that have no authentic claim upon our feelings. 



His solution, in “Funny Games,” was to teach us a lesson by refusing to offer any such arousal. One problem, however, was that the film itself inched close to the sort of exploitational detail that it was supposed to abhor—a proximity that only gets worse in this later version, which adds a definite carnal kick to the sight of the heroine being forced to strip to her underwear. 



Beyond this, however, the new movie wears an air of old hat. I would absolutely defend Haneke’s right to relaunch his broadside on our voyeuristic vices, but he’s not keeping up with the times; he’s behind them.



broadside

【船】(吃水線以上的) 舷側

全部舷側砲,舷砲齊射

fire a broadside at the pirates

(尤指報紙上的) 猛烈抨擊,肆意謾罵

The reviewer leveled a broadside at the novel.





assuage

to assuage one's [grief] [hunger] [fears]

abate

to abate a [tax] 

to abate one's [enthusiasm]  

The [storm] has abated. 

The [pain] in his shoulder finally abated.  

mitigate

mollify, allay, appease

Seething with acidic ill will and [un]mitigated vitriol,

militate

have effect or influence

This criticism in no way militates [against] your going ahead with your research. 

debilitate

make weak, enfeeble

The siege of [pneumonia] debilitated her completely. 

This was not a monumental or debilitating [sadness], more like the [low]-simmering melancholy that defines his characters. 

Debilitate