Meaning & use
relented
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Meanings
verbintransitive
Gave in and agreed to something after first saying no; the past tense of relent.
Grammar: No object; often followed by and plus a verb: she relented and let us go.
Patterns
- relent and do something
- relent after something
After an hour of begging, our father relented and bought the puppy.
The manager finally relented and gave her the day off.
She relented when she saw how upset he was.
verbintransitive
Became less severe, harsh, or intense after a period of hardship.
Grammar: Used of things like weather or pressure: the storm relented.
Patterns
- something relented
The storm relented by morning.
The heat relented after sunset.
The pressure on the company never relented.
Word forms
| base form | relent |
|---|---|
| third person singular | relents |
| -ing form | relenting |
Common combinations
- finally relented
- The council finally relented and reopened the pool.
- relented and agreed
- He relented and agreed to meet them.
- refuse to relent
- The union refused to relent.
- relented under pressure
- She relented under pressure from her family.
- the rain relented
- The rain relented around noon.
Synonyms and how they differ
- gave in
- Gave in is the common spoken equivalent, but relented suggests softening of attitude.
- yielded
- Yielded is more formal and means gave way to force or argument.
- softened
- Softened describes a gentler attitude without necessarily agreeing.
- caved
- Caved is informal and suggests weak giving in.
Opposites
Word family
- relent verb
- to become less severe or give in
- relentless adjective
- never stopping or becoming gentler
- relentlessly adverb
- in a way that never eases
- relenting adjective
- becoming less severe
Commonly confused: relented or relinquished?
relented vs relinquished
Relinquished means gave up or let go of something, which is different from softening your attitude.
Practice
After weeks of refusing, the landlord finally ___ and lowered the rent.
Choose one answer.
Relented means gave in after refusing. Resisted means the opposite, and the others do not fit.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “relented”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.