Mollify

WORD OF THE DAY

mollify / verb / MAH-luh-fye

Definition
1a: to soothe in temper or disposition
1b: appease
2a: to reduce the rigidity of
2b: soften
3a: to reduce in intensity
3b: assuage, temper
4 (archaic): soften, relent

Examples
"And a lot of fans who had vowed never to return were apparently mollified since attendance returned to pre-strike levels within a year. Will fans forgive this time? Maybe. But MLB was losing ground before the lockout."
— Jeffery G. Hanna, The Roanoke (Virginia) Times, 23 Mar. 2022

This did not mollify the fans, especially when two French Canadian players taken just after Lafleur in the 1971 draft, Marcel Dionne (Detroit Red Wings) and Richard Martin (Buffalo Sabres), started scoring immediately.
— David Shoalts, New York Times, 22 Apr. 2022

Did You Know?
Mollify, like its synonyms pacify, appease, and placate, means "to ease the anger or disturbance of."
But mollify is particularly well-suited for referring to an act of soothing hurt feelings or anger; it comes from the Latin mollis, meaning "soft."