Verb
soften (third-person singular simple present softens, present participle softening, simple past and past participle softened)
- (transitive) To make something soft or softer.
Soften the butter before beating in the sugar.
- (transitive) To undermine the morale of someone (often soften up).
Before the invasion, we softened up the enemy with the artillery.
- (transitive) To make less harsh
- Synonyms: subdue, temper
Having second thoughts, I softened my criticism.
2015 February 7, Helen Yemm, “Thorny problems: How can I soften a brick wall with plants?”, in The Daily Telegraph (London), page G7: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.
- (intransitive) To become soft or softer
The butter softened as it warmed up.
- (ambitransitive, phonology) To become or make (a consonant) more lenis, to lenite.
- (Slavic phonology) To palatalize.
Translations
(transitive) To make something soft or softer
- Albanian: zbut (sq)
- Azerbaijani: yumşaltmaq (az)
- Bulgarian: размеквам (bg) (razmekvam)
- Catalan: estovar (ca), ablanir (ca)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 軟化 / 软化 (zh) (ruǎnhuà)
- Danish: blødgøre
- Dutch: verzachten (nl)
- Finnish: pehmentää (fi), pehmittää (fi)
- French: adoucir (fr)
- Galician: suavizar (gl), amolecer (gl), amolegar, amolentar (gl)
- German: aufweichen (de), weichen (de)
- Greek:
- Ancient: μαλάσσω (malássō)
- Italian: ammorbidire (it), addolcire (it)
- Kazakh: жұмсарту (jūmsartu)
- Latin: molliō
- Maori: whakapē (refers to food), whakangāwari, whakangohengohe
- Norwegian: bløtgjøre
- Polish: zmiękczać (pl) impf, zmiękczyć pf
- Portuguese: amolecer (pt)
- Romanian: muia (ro), înmuia (ro)
- Russian: смягча́ть (ru) impf (smjaxčátʹ), смягчи́ть (ru) pf (smjaxčítʹ); размягча́ть (ru) impf (razmjaxčátʹ), размягчи́ть (ru) pf (razmjaxčítʹ)
- Sicilian: arrijuncari (scn)
- Spanish: ablandar (es), suavizar (es)
- Swedish: mjukna (sv)
- Tagalog: lumambot
- Turkish: yumuşatmak (tr)
- Ukrainian: пом'я́кшувати impf (pomʺjákšuvaty), пом'якши́ти pf (pomʺjakšýty), розм'я́кшувати impf (rozmʺjákšuvaty), розм'якши́ти pf (rozmʺjakšýty)
- ǃXóõ: gǃxàn (by pounding)
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(transitive) To undermine the morale of someone (often soften up)
(transitive) To make less harsh
(intransitive) To become soft or softer
- Assamese: মজা (moza)
- Azerbaijani: yumşalmaq
- Bulgarian: омеквам (bg) (omekvam)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 變軟 / 变软 (zh) (biànruǎn)
- Danish: blødgøres
- Egyptian: (gnn)
- Finnish: pehmetä (fi), pehmentyä
- Galician: amolecer (gl)
- German: aufweichen (de), weichen (de)
- Greek:
- Ancient: μαλάσσομαι (malássomai)
- Ido: deshardeskar (io)
- Italian: ammorbidirsi
- Japanese: 柔らかくなる (やわらかくなる, yawarakaku naru), 軟らかくなる (やわらかくなる, yawarakaku naru)
- Latin: mollescō
- Polish: mięknąć (pl) impf, zmięknąć pf
- Russian: смягча́ться (ru) impf (smjaxčátʹsja), смягчи́ться (ru) pf (smjaxčítʹsja); размягча́ться (ru) impf (razmjaxčátʹsja), размягчи́ться (ru) pf (razmjaxčítʹsja)
- Spanish: ablandarse (es), lentecer (es), enllentecerse (es), reblandecerse (es)
- Turkish: yumuşamak (tr)
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