Emily Dickinson Lexicon
Definition for LE'NI-ENT
LE'NI-ENT, a. [L. leniens, from lenio, lenis, soft, mild; Ar. لَلنَ laina, to be soft, or smooth. Class Ln, No. 4. The primary sense probably is smooth, or to make smooth, and blandus may be of the same family.]
- Softening; mitigating; assuasive. Time, that an all things lays his lenient hand, / Yet tames not this. – Pope. Sometimes with of; as, lenient of grief. – Milton.
- Relaxing; emollient. Oils relax the fibers, are lenient, balsamic. – Arbuthnot.
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