Softening

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Soften \Sof"ten\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Softened}; p. pr. & vb.
     n. {Softening}.]
     To make soft or more soft. Specifically: 
     [1913 Webster]
     (a) To render less hard; -- said of matter.
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               Their arrow's point they soften in the flame.
                                                    --Gay.
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     (b) To mollify; to make less fierce or intractable.
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               Diffidence conciliates the proud, and softens the
               severe.                              --Rambler.
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     (c) To palliate; to represent as less enormous; as, to soften
         a fault.
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     (d) To compose; to mitigate; to assuage.
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               Music can soften pain to ease.       --Pope.
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     (e) To make calm and placid.
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               All that cheers or softens life.     --Pope.
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     (f) To make less harsh, less rude, less offensive, or less
         violent, or to render of an opposite quality.
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               He bore his great commision in his look,
               But tempered awe, and softened all he spoke.
                                                    --Dryden.
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     (g) To make less glaring; to tone down; as, to soften the
         coloring of a picture.
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     (h) To make tender; to make effeminate; to enervate; as,
         troops softened by luxury.
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     (i) To make less harsh or grating, or of a quality the
         opposite; as, to soften the voice.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Softening \Sof"ten*ing\,
     a. & n. from {Soften}, v.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     {Softening of the brain}, or {Cerebral softening} (Med.), a
        localized softening of the brain substance, due to
        hemorrhage or inflammation. Three varieties, distinguished
        by their color and representing different stages of the
        morbid process, are known respectively as red, yellow, and
        white, softening.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  softening
       adj : having a softening or soothing effect especially to the skin
             [syn: {demulcent}, {emollient}, {salving}]
       n : the process of becoming softer; "refrigeration delayed the
           softening of the fruit"; "he observed the softening of
           iron by heat"

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  126 Moby Thesaurus words for "softening":
     abatement, abating, allaying, allayment, alleviating, alleviation,
     alleviative, allowance, altering, analgesia, analgesic, anesthesia,
     anesthetic, anesthetizing, anodyne, appeasement, assuagement,
     assuaging, assuasive, attenuation, attrition, balmy, balsamic,
     benumbing, blunting, bounding, calming, cathartic, chastening,
     cleansing, color, cushioning, dampening, damping, deadening,
     debilitation, decontamination, demulcent, demulsion,
     devitalization, dilution, diminishing, diminishment, diminution,
     dulcification, dulling, ease, easement, easing, effemination,
     emollient, enervation, enfeeblement, evisceration, exhaustion,
     extenuating, extenuating circumstances, extenuation, extenuative,
     extenuatory, falling-off, fatigue, gilding, gloss, hushing,
     inanition, languishment, laxation, leniency, lenitive, lessening,
     letdown, letup, lightening, limitative, limiting, loosening,
     lulling, mellowing, mitigating, mitigation, mitigative, mitigatory,
     modificatory, modifying, modulation, modulatory, mollification,
     mollifying, numbing, pacification, padding, pain-killing,
     palliation, palliative, purgative, qualification, qualificative,
     qualificatory, qualifying, quietening, quieting, reducing,
     reduction, relaxation, relaxing, relief, relieving, remedial,
     remedy, remission, restricting, restrictive, salving, slackening,
     softening-up, soothing, subduement, subduing, tempering, thinning,
     tranquilization, varnish, weakening, whitewash, whitewashing