SOFTEN • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Soften

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/sˈɑfən/ /sˈɔfən/ Listen

verb

Soften v. t. (past & past part. softened; pres. part. softening) To make soft or more soft. Specifically:

(a)

To render less hard; said of matter. "Their arrow's point they soften in the flame."

(b)

To mollify; to make less fierce or intractable. "Diffidence conciliates the proud, and softens the severe."

(c)

To palliate; to represent as less enormous; as, to soften a fault.

(d)

To compose; to mitigate; to assuage. "Music can soften pain to ease."

(e)

To make calm and placid. "All that cheers or softens life."

(f)

To make less harsh, less rude, less offensive, or less violent, or to render of an opposite quality. "He bore his great commision in his look, But tempered awe, and softened all he spoke."

(g)

To make less glaring; to tone down; as, to soften the coloring of a picture.

(h)

To make tender; to make effeminate; to enervate; as, troops softened by luxury.

(i)

To make less harsh or grating, or of a quality the opposite; as, to soften the voice.

Soften v. i. To become soft or softened, or less rude, harsh, severe, or obdurate.

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Etymology of 'Soften'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Soften" Quotes from Famous Books

... held. But on reflection, he realized that didn't make sense. If that were the case, Doctor Arnquist would have said so, and directed him to report to a ship. More likely, he thought, the Black Doctor wanted to see him only to soften the blow, to help him face the decision that ...

— Star Surgeon • Alan Nourse

... flag, was taken aboard the Golden Hind, and, with all his crew, given a splendid banquet by his English foes. After this the millions and millions of treasure were loaded aboard the Golden Hind, and the Spaniards were given handsome presents to soften their hard luck. Then they and their empty treasure ship were allowed to ...

— Flag and Fleet - How the British Navy Won the Freedom of the Seas • William Wood

... two mighty agencies, not merely "the cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples," but the very mountains themselves, are inevitable victims. Not merely storms and hurricanes, but every gentle shower, every fall of snow, tends to soften our scenery and lower the mountain peaks. These agencies are absent from the Moon, and the mountains stand to-day just as they were ...

— The Beauties of Nature - and the Wonders of the World We Live In • Sir John Lubbock

... word I'm really sorry our boys have to work to-morrow as usual. Ah! it's hard to be poor, JONES! A merry Christmas to us all. Here's my carriage come for me." And even in returning to their homes from their daily avocations, on Christmas Eve, how the most grasping, penurious souls of men will soften to the world's unfortunate! Who is this poor old lady, looking as though she might be somebody's grandmother, sitting here by the wayside, shivering, on such an Eve as this? No home to go?—Relations all dead?—Eaten nothing in two days?—Walked ...

— Punchinello Vol. 1, No. 21, August 20, 1870 • Various

... with grandeur, paint everything expressed, soften the shades of those which are of least importance, collect all into one point of view, and carry the reader thither ...

— A Lute of Jade/Being Selections from the Classical Poets of China • L. Cranmer-Byng

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