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Softening; relaxing. [Obs.]

A peculiar disease of the bones, in consequence of which they become softened and capable of being bent without breaking.

To soften by kneading or stirring with some thinner substance. [R.]

The act of softening by mixing with a thinner substance; the formation of ingredients into a mass for pills or plasters. [R.]

Modesty, courtesy, or concession, or a desire to soften a question or remark. How old may Phillis be, you ask. Prior.

To make better; to improve; to ameliorate; to soften; to make more tolerable. Nature by art we nobly meliorate. Denham. The pure and bening light of revelation has had a meliorating influence on mankind. Washington.

Well matured; softened by years; genial; jovial. May health return to mellow age. Wordsworth. As merry and mellow an old bachelor as ever followed a hound. W. Irving.

Hence: To soften, as by a warming or kindly influence; to relax; to render gentle or susceptible to mild influences; sometimes, in a bad sense, to take away the firmness of; to weaken. Thou would'st have . . . melted down thy youth. Shak. For pity melts the mind to love. Dryden.

To make less severe, intense, harsh, rigorous, painful, etc.; to soften; to meliorate; to alleviate; to diminish; to lessen; as, to mitigate heat or cold; to mitigate grief.

To soften by making moist; to make tender. It moistened not his executioner's heart with any pity. Fuller.

Serving to soften; assuaging; emollient.

The act of mollifying, or the state of being mollified; a softening. Chaucer.

To soften; to make tender; to reduce the hardness, harshness, or asperity of; to qualify; as, to mollify the ground. With sweet science mollified their stubborn hearts. Spenser.

Applied to certain consonants having a "liquid" or softened sound; e.g., in French, l or ll and gn (like the lli in million and ni in minion); in Italian, gl and gn; in Spanish, ll and ñ; in Portuguese, lh and nh.

A cushion for terminating or softening a note made by a stringed instrument with a keyboard.

an erect position on the bridge of a violin, or similar instrument, in order to deaden or soften the tone.

Softening and absorption of bone. -- Os`te*o*lyt"ic (#), a.

Macerated; softened; nearly fluid.

Hence, to soften; to abate; to diminish; to assuage; to reduce the strength of, as liquors. I do not seek to quench your love's hot fire, But qualify the fire's extreme rage. Shak.

Leather softened by boiling so as to take any required shape. Upon drying, it becomes exceedingly hard, and hence was formerly used for armor. [Obs.] "His jambeux were of quyrboilly." Chaucer.