different between mollify vs lighten

English

Alternative forms

• mollifie

Etymology

From Middle English mollifien, from Late Latin mollific?, from Latin mollis (“soft”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?m?l?fa?/

Verb

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

1. 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, p. 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, p. 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.
   • 1867, Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, chapter 2:

     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, Rinkitink in Oz, chapter 5:

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

   • 2016 January 31, "Is Huma Abedin Hillary Clinton’s Secret Weapon or Her Next Big Problem?," Vanity Fair (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.

3. To soften; to make tender
   • 1662, Henry More, An Antidote Against Atheism, Book III, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 113:

     "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, p. 102:

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

Synonyms

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

Related terms

• emollient
• mollification

Translations

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?la?.t?n/
• Rhymes: -a?t?n

Etymology 1

From Middle English lightnen, equivalent to light +? -en.

Verb

lighten (third-person singular simple present lightens, present participle lightening, simple past and past participle lightened)

1. (transitive) To make brighter or clearer; to illuminate.
   • 1667, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis, London: Henry Herringman, stanza 231, p. 59,^[1]

     A Key of fire ran all along the shore,

     And lighten’d all the river with the blaze:

2. (intransitive) To become brighter or clearer; to brighten.
3. (intransitive, archaic) To burst forth or dart, as lightning; to shine with, or like, lightning; to flash.
   • 1595, George Peele, The Old Wives’ Tale, The Malone Society Reprints, 1908, line 500,^[2]

     Enter the Conjurer; it lightens and thunders […]

   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene 3,^[3]

     […] this dreadful night,

     That thunders, lightens, opens graves, and roars

     As doth the lion.

4. (transitive) To emit or disclose in, or as if in, lightning; to flash out, like lightning.
   • c. 1595, William Shakespeare, Richard II, Act III, Scene 3,^[4]

     […] behold his eye,

     As bright as is the eagle’s, lightens forth

     Controlling majesty:

5. To illuminate with knowledge; to enlighten.
   • 1599, John Davies, “Of the Soule of man, and the immortalitie thereof” in Nosce Teipsum. This Oracle Expounded in Two Elegies, London: John Standish, p. 10,^[5]

     O Light which mak’st the Light, which makes the Day,

     Which setst the Eye without and Mind within,

     Lighten my spirit with one cleare heavenly ray,

     Which now to view it selfe doth first begin.

Conjugation

Derived terms

• lighten up

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English lightnen, equivalent to light +? -en.

Verb

lighten (third-person singular simple present lightens, present participle lightening, simple past and past participle lightened)

1. (transitive) To alleviate; to reduce the burden of.

2. (transitive) To make light or lighter in weight.
3. (transitive) To make less serious or more cheerful.
   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Psalms 34:5,^[6]

     They looked unto him, were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.

4. (intransitive) To become light or lighter in weight.
5. (intransitive) To become less serious or more cheerful.

Conjugation

Derived terms

• lighten up

Translations

Etymology 3

From light +? -en.

Verb

lighten (third-person singular simple present lightens, present participle lightening, simple past and past participle lightened)

1. To descend; to light.
   • Book of Common Prayer

     O Lord, let thy mercy lighten upon us.

Related terms

• alight

Anagrams

• enlight, lething