cause to feel relaxed; "A hot bath always relaxes me"
become less tense, rest, or take one's ease; "He relaxed in the hot tub"; "Let's all relax after a hard day's work"
make less tight; "relax the tension on the rope"
become less severe or strict; "The rules relaxed after the new director arrived"
make less severe or strict; "The government relaxed the curfew after most of the rebels were caught"
become less tense, less formal, or less restrained, and assume a friendlier manner; "our new colleague relaxed when he saw that we were a friendly group"
made to feel uncomfortable because of shame or wounded pride; "too embarrassed to say hello to his drunken father on the street"; "humiliated that his wife had to go out to work"; "felt mortified by the comparison with her sister"
not burdensome or demanding; borne or done easily and without hardship; "what a cushy job!"; "the easygoing life of a parttime consultant"; "a soft job"
a surrounding or nearby region; "the plane crashed in the vicinity of Asheville"; "it is a rugged locality"; "he always blames someone else in the immediate neighborhood"; "I will drop in on you the next time I am in this neck of the woods"
something that causes or entails suffering; "I cannot think it a hardship that more indulgence is allowed to men than to women"- James Boswell; "the many hardships of frontier life"