English-Portuguese translations for soften

• amolecer
  Geralmente, o Parlamento tem o hábito de falar muito alto no início e amolecer no prolongamento.Parliament has a habit of talking tough at the beginning and then softening up as things go on.
• abrandar
• suavizar
  Não devemos suavizar as sanções; não devemos levantá-las. We must not soften the sanctions; we must not lift them.
  O argumento é, grosso modo, que uma vez que o mundo mudou, há que suavizar a nossa abordagem. The world has changed and we must soften our approach, this is more or less the line of argument.
  A recentragem em parcerias público-privadas é um fraco substituto e o acesso ao programa JESSICA pouco faz para suavizar os efeitos negativos, pelo menos até este momento. The switch of focus to private-public partnerships is a poor substitute with access to JESSICA doing little to soften the blow, at least so far.

Definition of soften

• To make something soft or softer
• To undermine the morale of someone (often ''soften up''
• To make less harsh
• To become soft or softer

Examples

• Soften the butter before beating in the sugar.
• Before the invasion, we softened up the enemy with the artillery.
• Having second thoughts, I softened my criticism.
• The butter softened as it warmed up.

Related words

• softener
• softening
• softened
• unsoftened
• soften assuage allay reduce
• softening of the brain
• fabric softener
• water softener
• water softening