soften
To make something soft or softer.
Example
“Soften the butter before beating in the sugar.”
Other meanings
To undermine the morale of someone (often soften up).
“Before the invasion, we softened up the enemy with the artillery.”
To make less harsh.
“Having second thoughts, I softened my criticism.”
Related words
- oversoften
- presoften
- resoften
- softenable
- nonsoftening
- softeningly
- unsoftening
- soften someone's cough
- soften the blow
- soften up
- soften up the ground
- soften the ground
Word history
From Middle English "softenen".
Where this comes from
This definition is adapted from “soften” on Wiktionary, by its contributors, published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.