mollify

verb

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

   “mollify someone’s anger”

   “attempt to mollify”

   “mollify criticism”

   “Her calm explanation helped mollify their concerns.”

   “Hovv impetrable hee vvas in mollyfying the adamantineſt tiranny of mankinde, […]”

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.”

   “The angry goat was quite mollified by the respectful tone in which he was addressed.”

   “There were no honeyed words from Dr. Beeching to mollify Scottish feeling on rail service closures during his one-day visit in May.”

   “But these answers did not mollify Grassley. Specifically, he objected to Abedin’s becoming an S.G.E., because he believed she provided no irreplaceable expertise and therefore her designation as one had violated Congress’s intent when it created the program, in 1962.”

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 […]”