Meaning & use
unslaked
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Meanings
adjectivenot comparabletechnical
Not yet mixed or treated with water, especially lime that is still chemically active.
Grammar: Used before a noun: unslaked lime. It has no comparative or superlative forms.
Patterns
- unslaked lime
- unslaked quicklime
Builders add water to unslaked lime before they can use it in mortar.
Unslaked lime reacts strongly with water and can burn your skin.
The bag was marked 'unslaked' to warn workers that the powder was still active.
adjectivenot comparableliterary
Not satisfied or quenched; still strong and unrelieved.
Grammar: Used mainly in literary or formal writing, often before nouns like thirst, desire, or anger.
Patterns
- unslaked thirst
- unslaked desire
- unslaked anger
He drank greedily, as if trying to put out an unslaked thirst.
Her unslaked ambition drove her to work late every night.
The unslaked anger between the two families lasted for years.
Common combinations
- unslaked lime
- Unslaked lime is dangerous to touch without gloves.
- unslaked quicklime
- The factory stores unslaked quicklime in sealed containers.
- unslaked thirst
- After the long hike, his unslaked thirst was painful.
- unslaked desire
- The novel describes an unslaked desire for revenge.
Synonyms and how they differ
- quicklime
- A noun for the chemical itself (calcium oxide) before water is added; unslaked is the adjective describing it.
- caustic
- Describes a substance that burns or corrodes; unslaked lime is caustic, but caustic does not mean 'not mixed with water'.
- unquenched
- Closer for the literary sense of thirst or desire; it is more common in poetry than unslaked.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: unslaked or slaked?
unslaked vs slaked
This is the opposite: slaked lime has already been mixed with water and is less reactive. Unslaked means it has not.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'unslaked' correctly?
Choose one answer.
Unslaked lime has not yet been mixed with water, so it is still reactive and requires gloves. Option 1 is wrong because after drinking, thirst is slaked (satisfied), not unslaked. Option 2 is wrong because cement that has dried has already been mixed with water. Option 3 is wrong because 'unslaked' is an adjective, not a verb.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “unslaked”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.