mollify

verb

Etymology: From Middle English mollifien, from Late Latin mollificō, from Latin mollis (“soft”). By surface analysis, Latin moll- + -ify.

1. To ease a burden, particularly to ease a worry; make less painful; to comfort.

   “mollify someone’s anger”

   “attempt to mollify”

2. To appease anger, pacify, gain the good will of.

   “He tried to mollify the angry customer.”

   “Although this invitation was accompanied with a curtsey that might have softened the heart of a church-warden, it by no means mollified the beadle.”

3. To soften; to make tender.

   “Nor is it any more difficulty for him to mollifie what is hard, then it is to harden what is so soft and fluid as the Aire.”

   “By thy kindness thou wilt melt and mollify his spirit towards thee, as hardest metals are melted by coals of fire […]”