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mollify

verb
/ˈmɒlɪfaɪ/

Etymology

From Middle English mollifien, from Late Latin mollificō, from Latin mollis (“soft”). By surface analysis, Latin moll- + -ify.

  1. derived from mollis
  2. derived from mollificō
  3. inherited from mollifien

Definitions

  1. To ease a burden, particularly to ease a worry

    To ease a burden, particularly to ease a worry; make less painful; to comfort.

    • mollify someone’s anger
    • attempt to mollify
    • mollify criticism

  2. To appease anger, pacify, gain the good will of.

    • He tried to mollify the angry customer.
    • Although this invitation was accompanied with a curtsey that might have softened the heart of a church-warden, it by no means mollified the beadle.
    • The angry goat was quite mollified by the respectful tone in which he was addressed.

  3. To soften

    To soften; to make tender.

    • Nor is it any more difficulty for him to mollifie what is hard, then it is to harden what is so soft and fluid as the Aire.
    • By thy kindness thou wilt melt and mollify his spirit towards thee, as hardest metals are melted by coals of fire […]

The neighborhood

Derived

mollifiable, mollifiedly, mollifier, mollifyingly, unmollified, unmollifying

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at mollify. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01mollify02ease03discomfort04comfort05consolation06consoling07comforting08soothing

A definitional loop anchored at mollify. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

8 hops · closes at mollify

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA