relaxing

1. 1
   adjective

   Tending to make someone feel calm and to relieve tension or stress.

   A relaxing weekend at the cabin left them feeling refreshed.

   She found the gentle music deeply relaxing after a long day.

   Similarcalming, soothing, restful, peaceful

   Oppositestressful, tiring

   Note

   Here the word describes an effect, not an action: a relaxing piece of music is one that relaxes whoever hears it. Because it is a true adjective, it takes degrees: more relaxing, most relaxing, very relaxing. The verb form cannot do that. The test separates a very relaxing evening from a cat that is relaxing in the sun, where only the second describes something actually happening.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of relax.

   The cat was relaxing in a patch of sunlight.

   Relaxing too much before the exam left him unprepared.

   Note

   Behind this form stands a verb that works both with and without an object, and the participle keeps both uses. You can be relaxing your grip or the rules, making something looser or less severe, or simply relaxing, at rest and free of stress. An older, now dated use of relax meant relieving constipation, so older medical prose may use the form of loosening the bowels.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   The act or process of making something less tense, tight, or strict.

   The relaxing of border rules allowed more trade between the two countries.

   Doctors noted a gradual relaxing of the patient's tense shoulders.

   Similareasing, loosening, slackening

   Oppositetightening

   Note

   This is a true noun, not just the verb standing in a noun's position. It takes an article and an of-phrase, and it can even be plural, as in relaxings of the muscles. Compare the gerund, which takes a direct object (relaxing the rules), with the relaxing of the rules, which names the same event as a thing.

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