What does "mellow" mean?
Mellow: 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.
Additional senses
- 2.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.
- 3.Warmed by liquor; slightly intoxicated. Addison.
- 4.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.
- 5.To become mellow; as, ripe fruit soon mellows. "Prosperity begins to mellow." Shak.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00