slake \SLAYK\ , verb;
1. To satisfy; to quench; to extinguish; as, to slake thirst.
2. To cause to lessen; to make less active or intense; to moderate; as, slaking his anger.
3. To cause (as lime) to heat and crumble by treatment with water.
intransitive verb:
1. To become slaked; to crumble or disintegrate, as lime.
This word, believe it or not, is one I "use" quite often...but usually only to myself. When my sugar is too high, I get an extreme thirst and when I get through gulping down a copious amount of water, I think to myself "I slaked that thirst."
Really, I do. (although I don't think to myself "That's a copious amount of water I just drank." It does lead to a copious amount of peeing, though)
The third verb definition reminded me of all the lime I have mixed into drilling mud back when I worked on the rigs; lime was used for many reasons, but for the most part was used to control the ph of the fluid.
We used it for other purposes also, the main one being to "deodorize" our "outhouse". A few cupfuls dropped down the hole kept the flies away and the smell to a minimum. Quite by accident, I also found that it could warm up my hands during the coldest winter night. Donning a pair of rubber gloves, I would run some water over them then stick my hands into the sack of lime. The chemical process would create heat and would ease the pain in my aching hands.
Never thought of it that way, but I suppose that "slaked" the pain of the cold, too.
