(n.) A cup or glass filled to the brim, or till the liquor runs over, particularly in drinking a health or toast.
(n.) A covered house at a theater, etc., in honor of some favorite performer.
(n.) That which bumps or causes a bump.
(n.) Anything which resists or deadens a bump or shock; a buffer.
Example Sentences:
(1) On the upside, this year's monsoon will lead to bumper agricultural production, and the cheaper rupee also comes with a thick silver lining.
(2) Record numbers of shoppers hit the stores this weekend for the Thanksgiving Day sales but retail experts are sceptical that the trend can continue into a bumper Monday for online retailers.
(3) A rash of bumper pay deals would support the argument of the hawks, who believe interest rates should be raised to clamp down on inflation.
(4) This gesture goes some way to acknowledging the hypocrisy of an organisation which has sacked over 21,000 staff, while still attempting to pay bumper bonuses to the bosses.
(5) The Mr Benn approach also opens up lots of fancy dress options for TV sponsorship bumpers and blipverts.
(6) But the bumper year was somewhat blighted in the UK as Google was one of a number of multinational companies, including Amazon and Starbucks, that came under fire from MPs over their tax arrangements .
(7) Santander is planning to accelerate its expansion in Britain after reporting bumper profits in a market where it is now issuing 50% of all new mortgages.
(8) The run of unpredictable weather this season has left farmers and growers with bumper crops of "ugly" fruit and vegetables with reported increases in blemishes and scarring, as well as shortages due to later crops.
(9) 12.01pm GMT Report: Germany considering bumper aid payout for Greece.....
(10) None of these suggest a bumper year for the high street, since the jobless total is going up, house prices are going down, consumer confidence has cratered and real disposable income in 2011 saw its biggest fall since 1977.
(11) A bumper 16-page souvenir pullout will mark the end of its 30 years in print before it becomes the first national newspaper in the UK to go online only .
(12) The results are the second successive year of bumper returns for the major accounting firms and will fuel calls for more scrutiny from some backbench MPs and the small band of academics who closely watch the profession.
(13) Numerous educational materials were developed including training manuals, counseling booklets, tippee cups, posters, and bumper stickers.
(14) The company said it cannot make enough bumpers to satisfy demand, but will keep the offer of the free case open until September.
(15) The bumper return has prompted clubs to bring in new financial controls that they hope will limit wage inflation.
(16) She has also begun a privatisation programme and promised to put aside some of Nigeria's oil revenues in bumper years to cushion the country against plunging prices in future.
(17) We describe a patient in whom the internal bumper eroded into the stomach wall and was completely covered by gastric epithelium 11 months after gastrostomy tube placement.
(18) Headline profit before tax and one-off items is set to exceed expectations of £200m by up to 15% thanks to bumper sales – up 10% on a like-for-like basis in the 49 weeks to 7 January.
(19) It was also the year in which EastEnders and Coronation Street celebrated significant anniversaries by airing live episodes, which brought in bumper ratings.
(20) "The unpredictable weather this season, has left growers with bumper crops of ugly-looking fruit and vegetables with reported increases in blemishes and scarring, as well as shortages due to later crops.
Soften
Definition:
(v. t.) To make soft or more soft.
(v. t.) To render less hard; -- said of matter.
(v. t.) To mollify; to make less fierce or intractable.
(v. t.) To palliate; to represent as less enormous; as, to soften a fault.
(v. t.) To compose; to mitigate; to assuage.
(v. t.) To make less harsh, less rude, less offensive, or less violent, or to render of an opposite quality.
(v. t.) To make less glaring; to tone down; as, to soften the coloring of a picture.
(v. t.) To make tender; to make effeminate; to enervate; as, troops softened by luxury.
(v. t.) To make less harsh or grating, or of a quality the opposite; as, to soften the voice.
(v. i.) To become soft or softened, or less rude, harsh, severe, or obdurate.
Example Sentences:
(1) The other trend involved softening from penetrant liquid absorption and a concomitant decrease in hardness.
(2) Golding said the government would not soften its stance on drug trafficking and it intended to use a proportion of revenues from its licensing authority to support a public education campaign to discourage pot-smoking by young people and mitigate public health consequences.
(3) Pathologically, there was diffuse incomplete softening of white matter in all cases.
(4) Aware that her press secretary, Bernard Ingham, a former labour correspondent for the Guardian who understood the range of attitudes within trade unions, had tried to soften the impression that she saw Kinnock as another General Galtieri [Argentina’s president during the Falklands war], the draft text tried to distinguish between unions, rival parties and what the final text (the one she actually delivered) called “an organised revolutionary minority” with their “outmoded Marxist dogma about class warfare”.
(5) Add the onion, cook for three minutes, stirring, until softened, then add the wine, sage, lemon peel, lemon juice and 150ml water.
(6) Welfare cuts are now becoming a matter of life or death | Letters Read more But government sources suggested the political pressures on Osborne, who has been criticised publicly by a series of Tory MPs, suggest he will act more flexibly and direct substantial resources to softening the impact of the cuts.
(7) Moisture on the skin was shown to increase the discharge to a standard stimulus, probably by its softening effect on the stratum corneum.
(8) The importance of R for cervical softening during pregnancy and its interaction with E near term and during parturition are discussed.
(9) He and Cameron have spent the week softening up opinion for huge benefit cuts in next week’s budget , due to focus on tax credits, largely paid to in-work, ”hardworking” families, victims of Britain’s swelling ranks of the under-paid.
(10) The method of aspiration with a standard electric operative aspirator should be used for evacuation of the softened brain matter.
(11) But he also suggested the administration was softening its commitment to the Minsk framework for a deal.
(12) In a casserole over a medium heat, fry the onions in the oil and butter for 5 minutes, to soften.
(13) Its lines soften, its edges fade; it shrinks into the raw cold from the river, more like a shrouded mountain than a castle built for kings.
(14) The wizened fish is hammered with a mallet to soften it so you can pull it off in strips to eat.
(15) The substitution of the softeners with deionisers solved this important and unusual clinical problem.
(16) Softening and elution are not sufficient for constriction, however, since high potassium, 2,4-dinitrophenol, and cyanide inhibited constriction without inhibiting the softening or elution of axoplasm.
(17) Ribotyping patterns of aeromonads recovered from well 1, detention basin, sand filter, softener, and distribution samples were compared with those of the five clinical isolates.
(18) By softening these insects in a detergent solution, however, it is possible to make most observations in the same way as on fresh material.
(19) His and Osborne's post-election "softening up" is returning to haunt them.
(20) But recently, their attitude has softened as they realise the importance of music to the island.