mellow
pronunciation
How to pronounce mellow in British English:
UK [ˈmeləʊ]
How to pronounce mellow in American English:
US [ˈmeloʊ]
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- Verb:
- soften, make mellow
- become more relaxed, easygoing, or genial
- make or grow (more) mellow
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- Adjective:
- unhurried and relaxed
- having a full and pleasing flavor through proper aging
- having attained to kindliness or gentleness through age and experience
- having or suggesting softness and richness in quality
- slightly and pleasantly intoxicated from alcohol or a drug (especially marijuana)
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- Adverb:
- (obsolete) in a mellow manner
Word Origin
- mellow
- mellow: see meal
- mellow (adj.)
- mid-15c., melwe "soft, sweet, juicy" (of ripe fruit), perhaps related to melowe, variant of mele "ground grain" (see meal (2)), influenced by Middle English merow "soft, tender," from Old English mearu. Meaning "slightly drunk" is from 1680s. Mellow yellow "banana peel smoked in an effort to get high" is from 1967. Related: Mellowly; mellowness.
- mellow (v.)
- 1570s, from mellow (adj.). Related: Mellowed; mellowing.
Synonym
Example
- 1. Photo 11 : lolling in a glacier-fed river , southern elephant seals can be mellow , like this bull .
- 2. I was hugely impressed by the rough , loud guitar riff , so unlike the mellow sound of czechoslovakian music .
- 3. His hope is that it will endow modern instruments with the warm and mellow tones found in those made during the late 17th and early 18th centuries by antonio stradivari .
- 4. But a short boat ride away from the electric glow of the financial center exposes a cluster of refreshingly bucolic islands and mellow stretches of sandy coast -- which together form part of an area known as the new territories .
- 5. Michael prided himself on being unreasonable , and only in the later years of life did he mellow sufficiently to occasionally refrain from debate .