Adjacent Words

Mellow definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

MEL'LOW, a. [L. mollis, malus.]
1. Soft with ripeness; easily yielding to pressure; as a mellow peach or apple; mellow fruit.
2. Soft to the ear; as a mellow sound; a mellow pipe.
3. Soft; well pulverized; not indurated or compact; as mellow ground or earth.
4. Soft and smooth to the taste; as mellow wine.
5. Soft with liquor; intoxicated; merry.
6. Soft or easy to the eye.
The tender flush whose mellow stain imbues
Heaven with all freaks of light.
MEL'LOW, v.t. To ripen; to bring to maturity; to soften by ripeness or age.
On foreign mountains may the sun refine
The grape's soft juice and mellow it to wine.
1. To soften; to pulverize. Earth is mellowed by frost.
2. To mature; to bring to perfection.
This episode--mellowed into that reputation which time has given it.
MEL'LOW, v.i. To become soft; to be ripened, matured or brought to perfection. Fruit, when taken from the tree, soon mellows. Wine mellows with age.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: unhurried and relaxed; "a mellow conversation" [syn: laid-back, mellow]
2: having a full and pleasing flavor through proper aging; "a mellow port"; "mellowed fruit" [syn: mellow, mellowed]
3: having attained to kindliness or gentleness through age and experience; "mellow wisdom"; "the peace of mellow age" [syn: mellow, mellowed]
4: having attained to kindliness or gentleness through age and experience; "mellow wisdom"; "the peace of mellow age"
5: slightly and pleasantly intoxicated from alcohol or a drug (especially marijuana) [syn: high, mellow] v
1: soften, make mellow; "Age and experience mellowed him over the years"
2: become more relaxed, easygoing, or genial; "With age, he mellowed" [syn: mellow, melt, mellow out]
3: make or grow (more) mellow; "These apples need to mellow a bit more"; "The sun mellowed the fruit" adv
1: (obsolete) in a mellow manner [syn: mellowly, mellow]

Merriam Webster's

I. adjective Etymology: Middle English melowe Date: 15th century 1. a. of a fruit tender and sweet because of ripeness b. of a wine well aged and pleasingly mild 2. a. made gentle by age or experience b. rich and full but free from garishness or stridency c. warmed and relaxed by or as if by liquor d. pleasant, agreeable e. laid-back 3. of soil having a soft and loamy consistency • mellowly adverb • mellowness noun II. verb Date: 1575 transitive verb to make mellow intransitive verb to become mellow — often used with out

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. & v. --adj. 1 (of sound, colour, light) soft and rich, free from harshness. 2 (of character) softened or matured by age or experience. 3 genial, jovial. 4 partly intoxicated. 5 (of fruit) soft, sweet, and juicy. 6 (of wine) well-matured, smooth. 7 (of earth) rich, loamy. --v.tr. & intr. make or become mellow. Derivatives: mellowly adv. mellowness n. Etymology: ME, perh. f. attrib. use of OE melu, melw- MEAL(2)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Mellow Mel"low, v. i. To become mellow; as, ripe fruit soon mellows. ``Prosperity begins to mellow.'' --Shak.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Mellow Mel"low, a. [Compar. Mellower; superl. Mellowest.] [OE. melwe; cf. AS. mearu soft, D. murw, Prov. G. mollig soft, D. malsch, and E. meal flour.] 1. Soft or tender by reason of ripeness; having a tender pulp; as, a mellow apple. 2. Hence: (a) Easily worked or penetrated; not hard or rigid; as, a mellow soil. ``Mellow glebe.'' --Drayton (b) Not coarse, rough, or harsh; subdued; soft; rich; delicate; -- said of sound, color, flavor, style, etc. ``The mellow horn.'' --Wordsworth. ``The mellow-tasted Burgundy.'' --Thomson. The tender flush whose mellow stain imbues Heaven with all freaks of light. --Percival. 3. Well matured; softened by years; genial; jovial. May health return to mellow age. --Wordsworth. As merry and mellow an old bachelor as ever followed a hound. --W. Irving. 4. Warmed by liquor; slightly intoxicated. --Addison.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Mellow Mel"low, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Mellowed; p. pr. & vb. n. Mellowing.] To make mellow. --Shak. If the Weather prove frosty to mellow it [the ground], they do not plow it again till April. --Mortimer. The fervor of early feeling is tempered and mellowed by the ripeness of age. --J. C. Shairp.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(mellower, mellowest, mellows, mellowing, mellowed) 1. Mellow is used to describe things that have a pleasant, soft, rich colour, usually red, orange, yellow, or brown. ...the softer, mellower light of evening. ADJ: usu ADJ n/colour 2. A mellow sound or flavour is pleasant, smooth, and rich. His voice was deep and mellow and his speech had a soothing and comforting quality. ...a delightfully mellow, soft and balanced wine. ADJ 3. If someone mellows or if something mellows them, they become kinder or less extreme in their behaviour, especially as a result of growing older. When the children married and had children of their own, he mellowed a little... Marriage had not mellowed him. VERB: V, V n • Mellow is also an adjective. Is she more mellow and tolerant? ADJ 4. If someone is mellow, they feel very relaxed and cheerful, especially as the result of alcohol or good food. (INFORMAL) He'd had a few glasses of champagne himself and was fairly mellow... ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. a. 1. Ripe, mature. 2. Soft, mellifluous, smooth, silver-toned, sweetly flowing, rich, dulcet, silvery. 3. Soft, rich, delicate. 4. Softened, matured, good-humored, genial, jovial. 5. Soft, loamy, unctuous, rich, mellowy. 6. Perfected, well prepared. 7. Tipsy, fuddled, disguised, intoxicated, half seas over. II. v. a. 1. Ripen, mature. 2. Soften, tone down, smooth down, mature, improve. 3. Soften, pulverize. 4. Perfect, bring to perfection.

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

Almost drunk.

Moby Thesaurus

achingly sweet, addled, advance, affable, age, aged, agreeable, agreeable-sounding, amiable, amicable, appealing, ariose, arioso, attain majority, bear fruit, beery, bemused, besotted, blind drunk, blissful, bloom, blossom, blow, bring to maturity, canorous, cantabile, catchy, cheerful, come of age, come to fruition, come to maturity, compatible, complaisant, congenial, cordial, crapulent, crapulous, creamy, cushion, delicate, delicious, desirable, develop, developed, dizzy, drenched, drunk, drunken, dulcet, ease, easy, easygoing, eggshell, en rapport, enjoyable, euphonic, euphonious, euphonous, evolute, evolve, fair, fair and pleasant, far-gone, felicific, felicitous, fine, fine-toned, flat, flavorful, fledge, flourish, flower, fluff, flustered, fou, friendly, full, full-blown, full-flavored, full-fledged, full-grown, fully developed, gay, genial, gentle, giddy, glorious, gloss, golden, golden-tongued, golden-voiced, good, good-natured, goodly, gracious, grateful, gratifying, grow, grow up, happy, harmonious, heart-warming, honeyed, in full bloom, in liquor, inebriate, inebriated, inebrious, intoxicated, iridescent, jolly, jovial, juicy, knead, laxate, leave the nest, light, likable, limber, limber up, liquid, loosen, luscious, mash, massage, maturate, maturated, mature, matured, maudlin, melic, mellifluent, mellifluous, mellisonant, mellowed, mellowy, melodic, melodious, merry, mild, milden, mollified, mollify, mother-of-pearl, muddled, music-flowing, music-like, musical, muted, nacreous, nappy, nice, nonresistive, nonrigid, opalescent, pale, pastel, patinaed, pearly, plangent, pleasant, pleasant-sounding, pleasing, pleasurable, pleasure-giving, pleasureful, plump, progress, pulp, pulsing, pure, quiet, reach its season, reach manhood, reach maturity, reach twenty-one, reach voting age, ready, reeling, relax, resonant, resonating, rewarding, rich, ripe, ripen, ripened, rolling, sad, satisfying, season, seasoned, semigloss, settle down, shake up, shikker, silver-toned, silver-tongued, silver-voiced, silvery, simple, singable, smash, sober, sodden, soft, soft as putty, soft-colored, soft-hued, soften, soften up, softened, somber, songful, songlike, sonorous, sotted, squash, subdue, subdued, subtle, supple, sweet, sweet-flowing, sweet-sounding, sweeten, temper, tempered, tender, tenderize, throbbing, tiddly, tipsy, toga virilis, tone down, tunable, tune down, tuneful, under the influence, vibrant, vibrating, warm, wax, welcome, whisper-soft