(v. i.) To become less rigid or hard; to yield; to dissolve; to melt; to deliquesce.
(v. i.) To become less severe or intense; to become less hard, harsh, cruel, or the like; to soften in temper; to become more mild and tender; to feel compassion.
(v. t.) To slacken; to abate.
(v. t.) To soften; to dissolve.
(v. t.) To mollify ; to cause to be less harsh or severe.
(n.) Stay; stop; delay.
Example Sentences:
(1) There was no chance of Visca relenting and in the 32nd minute he crossed for Zukanovic, whose weak header was saved easily by Darren Randolph.
(2) Anas, a nurse, had wanted her children to stay but she relented and sold her gold jewellery when her son Salim found a way to get to Brazil, where he now has asylum after failing to reach the US.
(3) His face was found carved into tree trunks all over Celtic lands and his hold over the early Britons was so powerful that early Christians relented and adopted the green man's image as a force for good and a symbol of new life and renewal.
(4) Initially, the Cabinet Office resisted giving details of Nesta's investment saying it was commercially confidential, but later relented following advice from the audit office.
(5) But I also take seriously my responsibility to the American people Barack Obama Asked by Republican governors on Monday whether he might relent in the case of a pipeline extension that supporters argue will have negligible impact on greenhouse gas emissions but has been a totemic issue for environmentalists, Obama reportedly told the group it “ain’t gonna happen”.
(6) But he'd usually relent and read them by Wednesday."
(7) Kim Davis is out of jail – will she relent and issue same-sex marriage licenses?
(8) By the time people relent and sign on, they've exhausted every option.
(9) When the broadcasters relented and included the Greens, the prime minister suggested that the Democratic Unionist Party should be included.
(10) Apple has relented and sweetly smooth MMS implementation is now available.
(11) "I am surprised at this decision since China wants to promote openness and the rule of law, and I hope that they will relent and let me in.
(12) Fearful of the connections his son had been forming back home, his father reportedly confiscated Abedi’s passport, relenting only when his son told him he was going on a pilgrimage to Mecca.
(13) Patrick Bamford signs new Chelsea deal and makes Crystal Palace loan move Read more Mourinho maintains the Premier League champions have dealt with the move for the 21-year-old, which could break the record for an English defender, in the correct manner and he will not relent in his pursuit.
(14) Thus, unless factors independent of or complicating the calcium stone disease supervene, the renal insufficiency of treated patients remains mild and relently progressive.
(15) When he wouldn't relent, she draped him with a white rosary for safe passage.
(16) Miliband relented, and Balls took the exam, including clapping rhythmically, in the formal, unforgiving atmosphere music examiners love to generate.
(17) Merkel is apparently in Paris on Monday to thrash this issue out with Sarkozy, just four days ahead of the next EU Summit but Merkel is extremely unlikely to relent.
(18) But Cameron was forced to relent and let loose the Eurosceptics in cabinet, who have fanned out to hit the Sunday papers and broadcasts.
(19) The Kremlin, whose long slide into autocracy shows no sign of relenting, made deals with several of them, knowing it would be easier to keep them on side than to open up Russia's economy to proper procedures, competition, and fair trade.
(20) But he said that it would give Channel 4 more flexibility in how the programming budget was spent, assuming the advertising recession relents.
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.