take the edge off

Idioms and Phrases

Ease or assuage, make less severe, as in That snack took the edge off our hunger , or Her kind manner took the edge off her refusal . This term alludes to blunting the edge of a cutting instrument. Shakespeare used it figuratively in The Tempest (4:1): “To take away the edge of that day's celebration.” The precise wording of the idiom dates from the first half of the 1900s.

Related Words

• abate
• curtail
• decrease
• dilute
• diminish
• dwindle
• ease
• erode
• impair
• lighten
• minimize
• mitigate
• narrow
• shrink
• slacken
• taper off
• weaken