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SOFTENING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The process of becoming softer
Example:
he observed the softening of iron by heat
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural processes
Hypernyms ("softening" is a kind of...):
action; activity; natural action; natural process (a process existing in or produced by nature (rather than by the intent of human beings))
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "softening"):
maceration (softening due to soaking or steeping)
Derivation:
soften (become soft or softer)
soften (make soft or softer)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Having a softening or soothing effect especially to the skin
Synonyms:
demulcent; emollient; salving; softening
Classified under:
Similar:
soft (yielding readily to pressure or weight)
III. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb soften
Context examples:
And yet, he added, his eyes softening, I know that it is but a boy's mirth, with no sting in it.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Neatsfoot oil is used primarily as a conditioning, softening, and preservative agent for leather.
(Neatsfoot Oil, NCI Thesaurus)
"Lizzie," she replied, softening toward him, her hand pressing his arm, while her body leaned against his.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
"And I'm not afraid of confession, either," she said, with softening face and voice.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
Then forming his features into a set smile, and affectedly softening his voice, he added, with a simpering air, “Have you been long in Bath, madam?”
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
Yet again, in this new orientation, it was the thumb of circumstance that pressed and prodded him, softening that which had become hard and remoulding it into fairer form.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
The looking over his letter again, in replying to it, had such a softening tendency, that it was particularly necessary to brace her up with a few decisive expressions; and she was so very much concerned at the idea of making him unhappy, and thought so much of what his mother and sisters would think and say, and was so anxious that they should not fancy her ungrateful, that Emma believed if the young man had come in her way at that moment, he would have been accepted after all.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
In contrast, lighter pigmentation of people in northern countries may increase the production of vitamin D3 needed to prevent rickets, a softening and weakening of bones in children, usually due to inadequate vitamin D.
(New regions of the human genome linked to skin color variation in some African populations, National Institutes of Health)
A trophoblast that travels into the junctional zone of the decidua, reacting with maternal tissue leukocytes, mainly NK cells, macrophages and T cells, and invades maternal blood vessels feeding the placenta, softening the walls and replacing the lining with fetal tissue.
(Intermediate Type Trophoblastic Cell, NCI Thesaurus)
In their excitement they had unconsciously seized each other by the hand, and stood like two little children in the presence of a marvel, Challenger's cheeks bunched up into a seraphic smile, and Summerlee's sardonic face softening for the moment into wonder and reverence.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
