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The peculiar bitter substance, soft or liquid, and of a yellow color, produced when meat, bread, gum, sugar, starch, and the like, are roasted till they turn brown.

To try; to attempt; to apply. [Obs. or Archaic] To-night let us assay our plot. Shak. Soft words to his fierce passion she assayed. Milton.

To soften, in a figurative sense; to allay, mitigate, ease, or lessen, as heat, pain, or grief; to appease or pacify, as passion or tumult; to satisfy, as appetite or desire. Refreshing winds the summer's heat assuage. Addison. To assuage the sorrows of a desolate old man Burke. The fount at which the panting mind assu…

Mitigating; tranquilizing; soothing. [R.] Music her soft assuasive voice applies. Pope.

A medicine or other substance that produces contraction in the soft organic textures, and checks discharges of blood, mucus, etc. External astringents are called styptics. Dunglison.

To soften, mollify, or moderate; to soothe; to temper; as, to attemper rigid justice with clemency.

A kind of holothurian larva, with soft, blunt appendages. See Illustration in Appendix.

resembling "nature printing," by which drawings executed on gelatin are impressed into a soft metal plate, from which the printing is done as from copperplate.

An Axminster carpet, an imitation Turkey carpet, noted for its thick and soft pile; -- so called from Axminster, Eng.

orsted chenille so colored as to produce a pattern on a stout jute backing. It has a fine soft pile. So called from Axminster, England, where it was formerly (1755 -- 1835) made.

A soft white alloy of variable composition (as a nine parts of tin to one of copper, or of fifty parts of tin to five of antimony and one of copper) used in bearings to diminish friction.

Having the qualities of balsam; containing, or resembling, balsam; soft; mitigative; soothing; restorative.

A soft fabric with a kind of basket weave and a diapered pattern.

An inferior quality of soft brown sugar, obtained from the sirups that

To render calm or quiet; to calm; to still; to appease. Soft whispering airs . . . becalm the mind. Philips.

sleep or take rest in or on; a couch. Specifically: A sack or mattress, filled with some soft material, in distinction from the bedstead on which it is placed (as, a feather bed), or this with the bedclothes added. In a general sense, any thing or place used for sleeping or reclining on or in, as a quantity of hay, st…

e garden, a garden or inclosure to set beehives in ; an apiary. Mortimer. -- Bee glue, a soft, unctuous matter, with which bees cement the combs to the hives, and close up the cells; -- called also propolis. -- Bee hawk (Zoöl.), the honey buzzard. -- Bee killer (Zoöl.), a large two-winged fly of the family Asilidæ (…

A vocal or instrumental composition of a soft tranquil character, having a lulling effect; a cradle song.

Mild; soft; gentle; smooth and soothing in manner; suave; as, a bland temper; bland persuasion; a bland sycophant. "Exhilarating vapor bland." Milton.

dishing; a word or act expressive of affection or kindness, and tending to win the heart; soft words and artful caresses; cajolery; allurement. Cowering low with blandishment. Milton. Attacked by royal smiles, by female blandishments. Macaulay.