v. [f. SMOOTH a. + -EN5.]
In frequent use c. 1820–30, esp. by Landor.
1. trans. To reduce the force, harshness or violence of (something); to assuage, mollify, tone down (a passion, etc.).
1635. R. N., trans. Camden’s Hist. Eliz., I. 55. The heate of warre … was rather smoothened than any firm peace knit.
1724. Welton, Chr. Faith & Pract., 403. The government of our appetites … must needs smoothen and civilize any temper.
c. 1816. Fuseli, Lect. on Art (1848), 515. The general tone … smoothens the whirlwind that fluctuates on the foreground, and gives an air of temperance to the whole.
1829. Landor, Imag. Conv., Wks. 1853, I. 559/1. For the foundation of civility it is requisite that all malignity be smoothened.
2. To make easy or plain; to clear (a way), to free from difficulty, obstruction, etc.; to lighten or lessen (a difficulty).
1648. Howell, Twelve Treat. (1661), 375. To smoothen and facilitate things, thereby to open a passage, and pave the way to a happy peace.
1795. Ann. Reg., Hist., 108. [It] would have smoothened the road to a general pacification.
1829. Landor, Imag. Conv., Wks. 1853, I. 443/1. That I may smoothen the path to arrangements of great advantage to thee.
1857. Canon Flanagan, Hist. Ch. in Eng., II. 426. To smoothen matters to the utmost, Dr. Milner made an ample apology for any of his expressions which might have given offence.
3. To make (a surface, substance, etc.) smooth, level, even, calm, etc.; to free from roughness or inequality.
1678. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., iv. 73. [The paring-chisel’s] office is … to pare off and smoothen the irregularities the Former [plane] made. Ibid. (1683), Printing, xiii. ¶ 3. He goes about to Flat and Smoothen the Face.
1772. J. R. Forster, trans. Kalm’s Trav. N. Amer., I. 341. They … scraped off the burnt part of the wood, and smoothened the boat within.
1798. Landor, Gebir, Wks. 1853, II. 490/1. There spreads a marble squared And smoothen’d.
1820. W. Scoresby, Acc. Arctic Reg., II. 354. The remarkable property of oil in smoothening the surface of the sea.
1890. W. J. Gordon, Foundry, 142. Then we see the furrows smoothened on a stone wheel.
transf. 1864. Burton, Scot Abr., I. ii. 91. In France … the sharp contour of their name [sc. Kennedy] was smoothened into Cenedy.
1868. Browning, Ring & Bk., I. I. 1181. Language that goes as easy as a glove O’er good and evil smoothens both to one.
b. Const. away, down, off, over.
1680. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., xiii. 221. They cut down and smoothen away the Extuberances left by the Sharp-pointed Grooving Tool.
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., I. 111. Some may … cut-hedge and lawn adore, Which his shears have smoothen’d o’er. Ibid., II. 66. Oft I’ve seen thy little leg … Smoothen down thy silken sides.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., I. 57/2. This [pile] is called the ‘cast-shadow,’ and must not have its lower edge smoothened off.
4. intr. To become smooth.
1888. McCarthy & Praed, Ladies’ Gallery, I. i. 15. His chest expanded, his skin smoothened.
Hence Smoothened ppl. a.; Smoothening vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1818. Blackw. Mag., IV. 45. Every bit of the smoothened, polished … body, thanks a different artist for its ornament.
1841. Browning, Pippa Passes, Poems (1905), 176. The soft-rinded smoothening facile chalk That yields your outline to the air’s embrace.
1846. Landor, Imag. Conv., Wks. 1853, II. 61/2. I should be sorry to destroy … or even to remove the smoothened plank.
1887. Amer. Naturalist, XXI. 435. The first step in improvement gained from the chard beets was a smoothening of the root.
