Forms: 4–6 sobre, 4– sober (6 soberyn), 4 sobur (5 sobor), 4–5 sobir (5 sobyr). [f. SOBER a. Cf. late L. sōbriāre to make sober, OF. sobrier to live soberly.]
I. trans. 1. To reduce to a quiet or gentle condition; to appease, pacify.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, x. (Matthew), 443. [He] gat be-for þam þat ware wrathe, & sobryt þam.
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 206. Sobre and appeese suche folk as falle in furye.
c. 1440. Alph. Tales, 193. Sho sayd: ‘Dere Son! Meng þi rightwusnes with mercie!’… And þan hur Son was soberd & sayd [etc.].
1483. Cath. Angl., 347/2. To Sobyr, mitigare, placare.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot., II. 341. With Pecht and Saxone first he hes maid peice, All outwart weir to sober and gar ceiss.
b. To moderate, quieten (one’s feelings), by the exercise of self-control. Also refl.
1390. Gower, Conf., III. 332. With that he sobreth his corage And put awey his hevy chiere.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 3379. Ses now of sorowe, sobur þi chere.
c. 1430. Syr Gener. (Roxb.), 7626. Sobre youre hert, ma dame, I you besech.
1530. Palsgr., 724/1. I sober my selfe, I asswage myn anger.
c. refl. To keep (oneself) temperate.
1530. Palsgr., 724/2. He can sober hym selfe in his dyete the best that ever I sawe.
2. To render grave or serious.
1726. Pope, Odyss., XXI. 322. They … sent him sober’d horne, with better wit.
1823. Rutter, Fonthill, 40. Sobered almost into a religious feeling, by the oratory and its concomitants.
1854. Thoreau, Walden, 299. Sobered into silence by the mystery.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., III. lxxxvii. 161. Citizens who have been born to power … are sobered by their privileges.
b. To render less glaring or conspicuous.
1843. Ruskin, Arrows of Chace (1880), I. 6. Your critic has not allowed for the effect of time on its blues. They are now, indeed, sobered and brought down.
3. To make sober; to free from intoxication.
1709. Pope, Ess. Crit., 218. Shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, And drinking largely sobers us again.
1743. Francis, trans. Horace, Odes, I. xxxvii. 19. I. 171. Her, with Ægyptian Wine inspir’d,… Augustus sober’d into Tears.
1865. Pall Mall Gaz., 23 Oct., 9/2. Bread and cheese and vinegar to sober A. B.
4. To bring down to a sober condition in some respect.
1838. T. Mitchell, Aristoph. Clouds, 99. We shall not be surprised to find this fanciful system sobered down into the following observation.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxxiii. (1856), 284. Her light mingles so with the twilight of the sun that the stars are quite sobered down.
1877. O. W. Holmes, How not to settle it, 18. At times when … solemn speeches sober down a dinner.
II. intr. 5. To become sober, in various senses. Also with off.
1820. Scott, Monast., iv. That was very natural;… but ye hae sobered since that.
1879. G. Macdonald, P. Faber, II. i. 6. The colour sobered, but the glory grew.
1891. H. Tuckley, Under the Queen, 244. This gives the topers time to sober off after the heavy siege of the night before.
6. To settle or quieten down in some respect.
1825. Scott, Betrothed, Concl., The ecstasy of delight sobered down into a sort of tranquil wonder.
1844. Dickens, Mart. Chuz., viii. Merry is a little giddy, but she’ll sober down in time.
1886. Field, 4 Sept., 349/1. Many a horse who will sober down if struck severely once only, will get furious if the punishment is repeated.
Hence Sobered ppl. a.; Soberer; Sobering vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1794. Southey, Botany Bay Ecl., Frederic, 60. The hollow howl … Comes with no terror to the *sober’d sense.
1843. Ruskin, Mod. Paint., I. 109. Such a sobered high light.
1883. F. D. Morice, in Harper’s Mag., July, 212/2.
| Breathless hung the sobered throng | |
| On the magic of the song. |
a. 1849. J. C. Mangan, Poems (1859), 80. Soother and *soberer of the spirit’s fever.
a. 1510. Douglas, K. Hart, 238. His wound to wesche, in *sobering of his sair.
1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 1 Aug., 3/2. An enterprising American has initiated a new system of what is called by the cognoscenti ‘sobering-up.’
1831. Society, I. 286. The cogitations of the Countess had not been without their *sobering effect on her temper.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xii. III. 146. Tidings of a very sobering nature had just reached him.
