dulcify
Americanverb (used with object)
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to make more agreeable; mollify; appease.
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to sweeten.
verb
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rare to make pleasant or agreeable
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a rare word for sweeten
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of dulcify
1590–1600; < Late Latin dulcificāre, with -fy for -ficāre
Explanation
To make good lemonade, you can't just mix lemon juice and water; you have to dulcify it with the perfect amount of sugar to balance the bitterness and make it sweeter. The word dulcify comes from the Latin word dulcis, meaning "sweet." When you dulcify something, you make it sweeter or more pleasant. While sugar can dulcify a tart glass of lemonade, kind words can dulcify a tense conversation, turning frustration into friendliness. For example, a coach's encouragement can dulcify the sting of a losing game, helping the players feel more positive. Similarly, a gentle lullaby can dulcify a cranky baby. It's a sophisticated way to describe softening or sweetening something.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Come, let us begin the cure; and, through the exhilarating sweetness of harmony, let us dulcify, lenify, and pacify the acrimony of his spirits, which, I see, are ready to be inflamed.
From Monsieur De Pourceaugnac by Wall, Charles Heron
And there was, to dulcify for her the bath of this evening, the yet sharper contrast with the plight she had just come home in, sopped, shivering, clung to by her clothes.
From Zuleika Dobson, or, an Oxford love story by Beerbohm, Max, Sir
Your lato, azoch, zernich, chibrit, heautarit," and another asks:— "Can you sublime and dulcify? calcine?
From Halleck's New English Literature by Halleck, Reuben Post
The savage of America, like the savage of the South Sea islands, has learned to dulcify the fecula, by pressing and separating it from its juice.
From Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Year 1799-1804 — Volume 2 by Humboldt, Alexander von
The water, after standing all night in a bottle, yielded a remarkably vinous taste and odour, something analogous to that of dulcified spirit of nitre.
From Travels through France and Italy by Smollett, T. (Tobias)
All the harshness of life will be dulcified; we shall lie dreaming on golden sands, dipping full goblets out of a sea that has been transmuted into lemonade.
From The Open Secret of Ireland by Kettle, T. M. (Thomas Michael)
His harshest tones in this part came steeped and dulcified in good-humour.
From English literary criticism by Various
Half a Drachm of the dulcified Spirit of Nitre, and five Drops of the tinctura thebaica, were added to each of his Draughts, as the Pain and Difficulty of making Water had increased.
From An Account of the Diseases which were most frequent in the British military hospitals in Germany by Monro, Donald
He took chrystals of tartar, seneka, gum ammoniac, saline draughts, emetics, tinct. of cantharides, spirits of nitre dulcified, squills in all forms, volatile alkaly, calomel, Dover's powder, &c.
From An Account of the Foxglove and some of its Medical Uses With Practical Remarks on Dropsy and Other Diseases by Withering, William
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
