slacken vs douse

slacken and douse both are verbs.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
slacken	No	No	Yes	No
douse	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, douse is a hyponym of slacken; that is, douse is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than slacken:

Other hyponyms of slacken include dowse.

slacken (verb)	douse (verb)
become looser or slack	cover with liquid; pour liquid onto
make slack as by lessening tension or firmness	slacken
become slow or slower	lower quickly
make less active or fast	immerse briefly into a liquid so as to wet, coat, or saturate
	dip into a liquid
	wet thoroughly
	put out, as of a candle or a light