Mollify vs Slacken - What's the difference?
mollify | slacken | Related terms |
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 …
To gradually decrease in intensity or tautness; to become slack.
* 1900 , , The House Behind the Cedars , Chapter I,
* 1908 ,
To make slack, less taut, or less intense.
* 1986 , Mari Sandoz, The Horsecatcher?
To deprive of cohesion by combining chemically with water; to slake.
Mollify is a related term of slacken.
As verbs the difference between mollify and slacken
is that mollify is to ease a burden, particularly worry; make less painful; to comfort while slacken is to gradually decrease in intensity or tautness; to become slack.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 alsoslacken
English
Verb
(en verb)- The pace slackened .
- During this interlude, Warwick, though he had slackened his pace measurably, had so nearly closed the gap between himself and them as to hear the old woman say, with the dulcet negro intonation:...
- He seemed tired, and the Rat let him rest unquestioned, understanding something of what was in his thoughts; knowing, too, the value all animals attach at times to mere silent companionship, when the weary muscles slacken and the mind marks time.
- Elk slackened the rope so he could walk farther away, and together they went awkwardly up the trail toward the grassy little flat...
- to slack lime