soften
verbUK /ˈsɒfən/ · US /ˈsɑfən/
Etymology From Middle English softenen, softnen, equivalent to soft + -en.
1
To make something soft or softer.
- Soften the butter before beating in the sugar.
2
To undermine the morale of someone (often soften up).
- Before the invasion, we softened up the enemy with the artillery.
3
To make less harsh.
- Having second thoughts, I softened my criticism.
- I have recently reclad the south-west facing side of my single-storey cottage […]. I now want to plant some climbers of more manageable proportions to soften the building.2015 February 7, Helen Yemm, “Thorny problems: How can I soften a brick wall with plants?”, in The Daily Telegraph (London), page G7:
4
To become soft or softer.
- The butter softened as it warmed up.
5
Human sciences, Linguistics, Phonology, Sciences Ambitransitive To become or make (a consonant) more lenis, to lenite.
6
To palatalize.
Slavic phonology
- Antonyms
- harden
- Derived terms
- nonsoftening, oversoften, presoften, resoften, softenable, softener, softeningly, soften someone's cough, soften the blow, soften the ground, soften up, soften up the ground, unsoftenable, unsoftened, unsoftening