relaxverb
uk/rɪˈlæks/us/rɪˈlæks/relax verb (PERSON)
B1 [ I or T ] to (cause someone to) become less active and more calm and happy, or to (cause a part of the body to) become less stiff:
After work she relaxed with a cup of tea and the newspaper.
A good massage will relax your tired muscles.
He relaxed his grip on my arm (= he began to hold it less tightly).
More examples
- She lay back in the dentist's chair and tried to relax.
- I was relaxing in the bath, having toiled away in the garden all afternoon.
- After work, they relaxed by going to the pub.
- Don't tense your shoulders, just relax.
- I like to relax with a pipe of an evening.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Calming and relaxing
- assuage
- balls-to-the-wall
- bask
- bread
- bread and circuses idiom
- calm
- chill
- humour
- lie down
- lighten sth up
- lighten up
- lull
- lull sb into sth
- relaxation
- settle
- slow down
- soften
- steady
- take things easy idiom
- take/need a cold shower idiom
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relax verb (RULE)
[ T ] to make a rule or control less severe:
Two weeks after the police relaxed security at the airports, there was a bomb attack.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Liberating, relaxing and releasing
- chillax
- decontrol
- deregulate
- emancipate
- exempt
- free
- get
- let/set sth loose idiom
- liberate
- loose
- loosen
- loosen sb's tongue idiom 1
- loosen sb's tongue
- relax your grip/hold idiom
- release
- unbind
- unconfined
- unhand
- untethered
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Idiom(s)
relax your grip/hold