Emily Dickinson Lexicon

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.]

1. 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.
2. Relaxing; emollient. Oils relax the fibers, are lenient, balsamic. – Arbuthnot.