Also 7–8 softning, 8–9 Sc. saftening. [f. as prec.]
1. Causing to become soft, tender, etc.
(a) c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 353. Of mollificatif medicyns or softenyng.
1631. Widdowes, Nat. Philos., 36. His oyle for hot and softning nature helpeth diseases of the brest.
1735. Bracken, Gentlem. Pocket Farr., 11, note. You ought to keep the Foot … covered with any softning Poultice.
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), II. 151. I got some softening cream, and spread it over the burn.
1861. Paley, Æschylus (ed. 2), Prometh., 388, note. Reducing a swelling by softening applications.
(b) 1643. Milton, Divorce, viii. Wks. 1851, IV. 39. To unsettle our constancie with timerous and softning suggestions.
1668. Davenant, Man’s the Master, V. i. [Do you] yet strive, with softning pity, to allay that courage?
1729. Law, Serious Call, xvii. (1761), 293. We may deceive ourselves … with vain and softening comments upon these words.
1794. E. Williams, Poems, II. 4. He … blended with her glaring hues The soft’ning tints of Art.
1847. Prescott, Peru, IV. iii. (1850), II. 300. When … time had … thrown its softening veil over the past.
1894. Mrs. Dyan, Man’s Keeping (1899), 280. Under the softening shade of her parasol.
2. Becoming soft, gentle, tender, etc.
1730. Thomson, Hymn, 5. Wide flush the fields; the softening air is balm.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exped., xviii. (1856), 140. With a gradually softening tint.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., III. ii. ‘I can believe that,’ said Miss Abbey, with a softening glance at the little creature.
1898. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., V. 250. Occasionally the enlarged and softening glands adhere to a contiguous organ.
