Meaning

6 senses
  1. (transitive)To make something soft or softer.

    Soften the butter before beating in the sugar.

    aufweichen, weichen

    смягча́тьsmjaxčátʹ, смягчи́тьsmjaxčítʹ, размягча́тьrazmjaxčátʹ

    пом'я́кшуватиpomʺjákšuvaty, пом'якши́тиpomʺjakšýty, розм'я́кшуватиrozmʺjákšuvaty

    make soft or softer

  2. (transitive)To undermine the morale of someone (often soften up).

    Before the invasion, we softened up the enemy with the artillery.

  3. (transitive)To make less harsh.

    Having second thoughts, I softened my criticism.

    смягча́тьsmjaxčátʹ, смягчи́тьsmjaxčítʹ

    make less severe or harsh

  4. (intransitive)To become soft or softer.

    The butter softened as it warmed up.

    aufweichen, weichen

    смягча́тьсяsmjaxčátʹsja, смягчи́тьсяsmjaxčítʹsja, размягча́тьсяrazmjaxčátʹsja

    пом'я́кшуватисяpomʺjákšuvatysja, пом'якши́тисяpomʺjakšýtysja, м'я́кшатиmʺjákšaty

    become soft or softer

  5. (ambitransitive)To become or make (a consonant) more lenis, to lenite.

  6. To palatalize.

Examples

40 sentences
  1. Tom's expression softened.

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  2. Tom's eyes softened.

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  3. The butter softened in the saucer.

    ruМасло размякло на блюдце.

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  4. The tar softened from the heat.

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  5. His anger towards me has not softened.

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Translations

9 languages
Українська
By meaning 2
(transitive) To make something soft or softer:
(intransitive) To become soft or softer:
Русский
By meaning 2
(transitive) To make something soft or softer:
(intransitive) To become soft or softer:
Deutsch
By meaning 1
(transitive) To make something soft or softer:

Origin

From Middle English softenen, softnen, equivalent to soft + -en.

From Middle English softenen, softnen, equivalent to soft + -en.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

softens, softening, softened, softened
Base formsoften · to soften
3rd person singularsoftens
Present participlesoftening
Past simplesoftened
Past participlesoftened

regular · Lesson

Present simpleLesson

I, you, we, theysoften
he, she, itsoftens

Past simpleLesson

all personssoftened

Present perfectLesson

I, you, we, theyhave softened
he, she, ithas softened

Future simple (will)Lesson

all personswill soften

Synonyms

16 synonyms
Close in meaning

Antonyms

2 antonyms

Word family

16 related words

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
soften — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto