different between blunt vs slacken

English

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /bl?nt/
• Rhymes: -?nt

Etymology 1

From Middle English blunt, blont, from Old English *blunt (attested in the derivative Blunta (male personal name) (> English surnames Blunt, Blount)), probably of North Germanic origin, possibly related to Old Norse blunda (“to doze”) (> Icelandic blunda, Swedish blunda, Danish blunde).

Adjective

blunt (comparative blunter, superlative bluntest)

1. Having a thick edge or point; not sharp.
2. Dull in understanding; slow of discernment; opposed to acute.
3. Abrupt in address; plain; unceremonious; wanting the forms of civility; rough in manners or speech.

   the blunt admission that he had never liked my company
4. Hard to impress or penetrate.
   • December 30, 1736, Alexander Pope, letter to Jonathan Swift

     I find my heart hardened and blunt to new impressions.

5. Slow or deficient in feeling: insensitive.

Synonyms

• (having a thick edge or point): dull, pointless, coarse
• (dull in understanding): stupid, obtuse
• (abrupt in address): curt, short, rude, brusque, impolite, uncivil, harsh

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

blunt (plural blunts)

1. A fencer's practice foil with a soft tip.
2. A short needle with a strong point.
3. (smoking) A marijuana cigar.
   • 2005: to make his point, lead rapper B-Real fired up a blunt in front of the cameras and several hundred thousand people and announced, “I'm taking a hit for every one of y'all!” — Martin Torgoff, Can't Find My Way Home (Simon & Schuster 2005, p. 461)
4. (Britain, slang, archaic, uncountable) money

   • Down he goes to the Commons, to see the lawyer and draw the blunt […]

5. A playboating move resembling a cartwheel performed on a wave.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English blunten, blonten, from the adjective (see above).

Verb

blunt (third-person singular simple present blunts, present participle blunting, simple past and past participle blunted)

1. To dull the edge or point of, by making it thicker; to make blunt.
2. (figuratively) To repress or weaken; to impair the force, keenness, or susceptibility, of

   It blunted my appetite.

   My feeling towards her have been blunted.

Synonyms

• blunten

Translations

See also

• bluntly
• dull

Old French

Etymology

From Frankish *blund, from Proto-Germanic *blundaz, from Proto-Indo-European *b?lend?-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /blont/, [bl?nt]

Adjective

blunt m (oblique and nominative feminine singular blunde)

1. Alternative form of blont

English

Etymology

From Middle English slakenen, equivalent to slack +? -en.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?slæ.k?n/
• Rhymes: -æk?n

Verb

slacken (third-person singular simple present slackens, present participle slackening, simple past and past participle slackened)

1. (intransitive) To gradually decrease in intensity or tautness; to become slack.

   The pace slackened.

   • 1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows:

     He seemed tired, and the Rat let him rest unquestioned, understanding something of what was in his thoughts; knowing, too, the value all animals attach at times to mere silent companionship, when the weary muscles slacken and the mind marks time.

2. (transitive) To make slack, less taut, or less intense.
   • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, The House Behind the Cedars, Chapter I:

     During this interlude, Warwick, though he had slackened his pace measurably, had so nearly closed the gap between himself and them as to hear the old woman say, with the dulcet negro intonation: […]

   • 1986, Mari Sandoz, The Horsecatcher:

     Elk slackened the rope so he could walk farther away, and together they went awkwardly up the trail toward the grassy little flat...

3. To deprive of cohesion by combining chemically with water; to slake.

   to slacken lime

Related terms

• slack
• slacker

Translations

Anagrams

• cankles, snackle