take the edge off

1. 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.

Example Sentences

To come in and just, like you said, take the edge off and get to laugh a little bit.

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“Sometimes medication is necessary to take the edge off of traumatized animals.”

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While some Angelenos fill their stomachs to calm their nerves, proponents of the “Emotional Freedom Technique” take the edge off by executing a series of esoteric stress-relief exercises.

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She rode in the motorcade that took Malia and Sasha to school, to take the edge off the trip that involved three cars and at least four armed security agents.

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“It would definitely take the edge off,” he quipped.

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Related Words

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