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Slacken.

To render slow; to slacken the speed of; to retard; to delay; as, to slow a steamer. Shak.

A slackening or arrest of the blood current in the vessels, due not to a lessening of the heart's beat, but presumably to some abnormal resistance of the capillary walls. It is one of the phenomena observed in the capillaries in inflammation.

To let go or slacken suddenly, as a rope; as, to surge a hawser or messenger; also, to slacken the rope about (a capstan).

urn; to wear; as, to veer, or wear, a vessel. To veer and haul (Naut.), to pull tight and slacken alternately. Totten. -- To veer away or out (Naut.), to let out; to slacken and let run; to pay out; as, to veer away the cable; to veer out a rope.

ury. (d) To tighten (the strings) of a musical instrument, so as to tune it. "Wind up the slackened strings of thy lute." Waller.