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• mollifie

語源

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

発音

• IPA: /ˈmɒlɪfaɪ/

動詞

mollify (third-person singular simple present mollifies, present participle mollifying, simple past and past participle mollified)

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

   mollify someone’s anger

   attempt to mollify

   mollify criticism

   Her calm explanation helped mollify their concerns.

   • 1599, [Thomas] Nashe, Nashes Lenten Stuffe, […], London: […] [Thomas Judson and Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and C[uthbert] B[urby] […], →OCLC, page 21:

     Hovv impetrable hee vvas in mollyfying the adamantineſt tiranny of mankinde, […]

   • 1893, Henry George, The Condition of Labor: An Open Letter to Pope Leo XIII, page 104:

     All that charity can do where injustice exists is here and there to somewhat mollify the effects of injustice.

   • 1997, A Government Reinvented: A Study of Alberta’s Deficit Elimination Program, page 408:

     The draft Charter School Handbook issued in November 1994 sought to mollify concerns over teacher quality, if not ATA membership, by requiring teacher certification.

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

   He tried to mollify the angry customer.

   • 1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], chapter II, in Oliver Twist; […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC:

     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.

   • 1916, L. Frank Baum, chapter 5, in Rinkitink in Oz:

     The angry goat was quite mollified by the respectful tone in which he was addressed.

   • 1964 July, “News and Comment: Dr. B. beards Scots in their lair”, in Modern Railways, page 15:

     There were no honeyed words from Dr. Beeching to mollify Scottish feeling on rail service closures during his one-day visit in May.

   • 2016 January 31, “Is Huma Abedin Hillary Clinton’s Secret Weapon or Her Next Big Problem?”, in Vanity Fair‎, archived from the original on 5 February 2016, retrieved 21 January 2016:

     But these answers did not mollify Grassley. Specifically, he objected to Abedin’s becoming an S.G.E., because he believed she provided no irreplaceable expertise and therefore her designation as one had violated Congress’s intent when it created the program, in 1962.

   • 2020 July 29, Priscilla Alvarez, “Judge blocks administration from implementing ‘public charge’ rule for immigrants during pandemic”, in CNN‎:

     Earlier this year, amid the challenge to the public charge rule arising from the Covid-19 virus, Chief Justice John Roberts took the lead against immigrant interests yet mollified liberals poised to dissent publicly, CNN’s Joan Biskupic reported this week.

3. To soften; to make tender.
   • 1653, Henry More, An Antidote against Atheisme, or An Appeal to the Natural Faculties of the Minde of Man, whether There Be Not a God, London: […] Roger Daniel, […], →OCLC:

     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.

   • 1724, William Burkitt, Expository Notes, with Practical Observations on the New Testament,, page 102:

     By thy kindness thou wilt melt and mollify his spirit towards thee, as hardest metals are melted by coals of fire […]

同意語

• (to ease a burden): assuage, calm, comfort, mitigate, soothe
• (to appease): appease, conciliate, pacify, placate, propitiate, satisfy
• (to soften): soften, soften up, tenderize, temper, deharden
• See also Thesaurus:calm

派生語

関連する語

• emollient
• mollification

参照

• “mollify”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.