Mollify vs Abate - What's the difference?
mollify | abate |
To ease a burden, particularly worry; make less painful; to comfort.
* 1893 , (Henry George), The Condition of Labor: An Open Letter to Pope Leo XIII,
*: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,
*:The draft Charter School Handbook issued in November 1994 sought to mollify concerns over teacher quality, if not ATA membership, by requiring teacher certification.
To appease (anger), pacify, gain the good will of.
* 1867 , , chapter 2:
* 1916 , , chapter 5:
To soften; to make tender
* 1662 , , Book III, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 113:
* 1724 , (William Burkitt), Expository Notes, with Practical Observations on the New Testament,
*:By thy kindness thou wilt melt and mollify his spirit towards thee, as hardest metals are melted by coals of fire …
(transitive, obsolete, outside, legal) To put an end to; to cause to cease.
To become null and void.
(legal) To nullify; make void.
(obsolete) To humble; to lower in status; to bring someone down physically or mentally.
*
(obsolete) To be humbled; to be brought down physically or mentally.
(obsolete) To curtail; to deprive.
* 1605 , , King Lear , II.ii:
To reduce in amount, size, or value.
*
To decrease in size, value, or amount.
To moderate; to lessen in force, intensity, to subside.
* 1597 , , [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/575 Essays or Counsels, Civil and Morall] :
* 1855 , , History of England from the Accession of James II, Part 3 , [http://books.google.com/books?id=MN5CNdgbSTYC&pg=PA267 page 267]:
To decrease in intensity or force; to subside.
* :
To deduct or omit.
* 1845 , , The Church History of Britain , Volume 3, [http://books.google.com/books?id=OfefAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA100 page 100]:
To bar or except.
*
To cut away or hammer down, in such a way as to leave a figure in relief, as a sculpture, or in metalwork.
(obsolete) To dull the edge or point of; to blunt.
(archaic) To destroy, or level to the ground.
* 1542 , , The Union of the Noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre and York :
(legal) To enter a tenement without permission after the owner has died and before the heir takes possession.
As a verb mollify
is to ease a burden, particularly worry; make less painful; to comfort.As a noun abate is
.mollify
English
Alternative forms
* mollifieVerb
(en-verb)p. 104:
p. 408:
- 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.
- "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."
p. 102:
Synonyms
* (to ease a burden) assuage, calm, comfort, mitigate, soothe * (to appease) appease, conciliate, pacify, placate, propitiate, satisfy * See alsoabate
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) abaten, from (etyl) . Cognate to modern French abattre .Verb
(abat)- to abate a nuisance
- The writ has abated .
- to abate a writ
- The hyer that they were in this present lyf, the moore shulle they be abated and defouled in helle.
- Order restrictions and prohibitions to abate an emergency situation.
- She hath abated me of half my train.
- Legacies are liable to be abated entirely or in proportion, upon a deficiency of assets.
- His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated .
- Not that they feel it so, but only to abate the edge of envy.
- The fury of Glengarry rapidly abated .
- We will abate this price from the total.
- Allowing nine thousand parishes (abating the odd hundreds) in England and Wales
- Abating his brutality, he was a very good master.
- The kynge of Scottes planted his siege before the castell of Norham, and sore abated the walls.