(v. t.) To soften; to make tender; to reduce the hardness, harshness, or asperity of; to qualify; as, to mollify the ground.
(v. t.) To assuage, as pain or irritation, to appease, as excited feeling or passion; to pacify; to calm.
Example Sentences:
(1) "On the contrary, they often serve to inflame rather than mollify the feelings of those involved."
(2) The government has promised to pay for the treatment costs of the victims, but parents are unlikely to be easily mollified.
(3) Randomized studies, attempting to clarify the role of combined azathioprine and prednisone therapy versus prednisone alone in severe systemic lupus erythematosus have sustained rather than mollified a clinical controversy.
(4) All the evidence is that, in Scotland at least, had Corbyn been in charge at the time of the election, even the time of last year’s referendum, Labour’s meltdown may have been substantially mollified.
(5) The Department for Transport unveiled several tweaks to the first stage of the HS2 route to mollify opponents in the wealthy commuter belt north and west of London.
(6) The city's Communist Party chief Tang Jun and mayor Li Wancai attempted to mollify the crowd with a promise to move the polluting project out of the city," according to the Xinhua news agency.
(7) The next time you hear mollifying words from Rudd that our rising debt levels are at reasonable levels compared to other countries, think about how Britons were lulled into the financial danger zone and ask yourself: are we on the same trajectory?
(8) What is now known, thanks to the Leveson process, is that James Murdoch was considerably mollified at the time.
(9) In a bid to mollify critics, Obama said: "We will never undertake this research lightly.
(10) This seems like a statement designed simply to mollify concerned backbenchers but lacking the substance to actually protect the countryside from fracking pollution.” Martin Harper, RSPB’s conservation director, said: “We are very pleased the government has indicated it intends to ban fracking in England’s best places for wildlife, Sites of Special Scientific Interest.
(11) On the contrary they often serve to inflame rather than mollify the feelings of those involved."
(12) He thinks, too, that Downing Street's recent concerns over the children's services agenda - its perceived lack of measurable outcomes and its feared drag on academic attainment - have been mollified.
(13) I hope you understand.” Supporters – overwhelmingly pro-Federer, as usual – were mollified to an extent that Andy Murray , who suffered an overwhelming defeat by Federer in the final qualifying match, would step in to play a “pro set” of first to eight games against Djokovic, as well as a doubles match, partnering John McEnroe against Tim Henman and Pat Cash.
(14) But, apparently mollified by Gove's comments, Wilshaw put out a fresh statement on Sunday night, saying: "I have talked to the secretary of state today and I know that he is 100% supportive of my leadership.
(15) His reasons were the sheer scale of emissions from China’s coal-fuelled factories, and a need to mollify American public opinion.
(16) The speech appeared to be an attempt to rally his Islamist support base, with little to mollify the millions who marched for his removal in July.
(17) The investigations into Mubarak's sons are expected to mollify the opposition.
(18) Corbyn faces tension between assuring supporters that the policy direction will change and the need to mollify some frontbenchers who regard international issues, such as the UK-US relationship, as a principle they cannot compromise on.
(19) Nor were they mollified by his refusal to underwrite their future should any of them be convicted.
(20) His appointment could mollify Independent journalists worried that the potential appointment of Liddle could overturn the paper's liberal values.
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.