mellow

adjective

1. 1

   figurativeSoft or tender by reason of ripeness; having a tender pulp.

   a mellow apple

   How can thoſe men call home the loſt ſheepe that are gone aſtray, comming into the Miniſtery before their wits be ſtaid. This greene fruite, béeing gathered before it be ripe, is rotten before it be mellow, and infected with Sciſmes before they haue learned to bridle their affections, […]

   Com[inius]. Hee'l ſhake your Rome about your eares. / Mene[nius]. As Hercules did ſhake downe Mellow Fruite: You haue made faire worke.

   A little longer, yet a little longer, / And Nature drops him down, without your Sin, / Like mellow Fruit, without a Winter Storm.

2. 2

   figurativeMatured and smooth, and not acidic, harsh, or sharp.

   The Claret ſmooth, deep as the lip vve preſs, / In ſparkling fancy, vvhile vve drain the bovvl; / The mellovv-taſted Burgundy; and quick, / As is the vvit it gives, the bright Champaign.

   [H]e was ready and willing to hear what I might have to say: his spirit was of vintage too mellow and generous to sour in one thunder-clap.

3. 3

   Soft and easily penetrated or worked; not hard or rigid; loamy.

   [A] wyse and counnynge gardener […] will first serche throughout his gardeyne where he can finde the most melowe and fertile erth: and therin wil he put the sede of the herbe to growe and be norisshed: […]

   This liketh moorie plots, delights in ſedgie Bovvres, / The graſſy garlands loues, and oft attyr'd with flovvres / Of ranke and mellovv gleabe; a ſwarde as ſoft as vvooll, / VVith her complexion ſtrong, a belly plumpe and full.

   [L]et the Caſes be fill'd with natural-earth (ſuch as is taken the firſt half ſpit, from juſt under the Turf of the beſt Paſture ground) mixing it with one part of rotten Cow-dung, or very mellow Soil ſcreen'd and prepar'd ſome time before; […]

   For putrid Earth will beſt in Vineyards take, / And hoary Froſts, after the painful Toyl / Of delving Hinds, will rot the Mellow Soil.

4. 4

   Mature; of crops: ready to be harvested; ripe.

   Nor autumn yet had bruſh'd from ev'ry ſpray, / With her chill hand, the mellow leaves away; […]

5. 5

   Fruitful and warm.

   And mellow Autumn, charged with bounteous fruit, / Where is she imaged? in what favoured clime / Her lavish pomp, and ripe magnificence?

   Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, / Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; / Conspiring with him how to load and bless / With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run; […]

6. 6

   figurativeNot coarse, brash, harsh, or rough; delicate, rich, soft, subdued.

   How ſvveet and mellovv, and yet hovv Majeſtick, is the Sound of it!

   The mellow Harp did not their Ears employ: / And mute was all the Warlike Symphony: / Diſcourſe, the Food of Souls, was their Delight, / And pleaſing Chat, prolong'd the Summers-night.

   I remember to have ſeen him, after giving his opinion that the colouring of a picture was not mellow enough, very deliberately take a bruſh with brown varniſh, that was accidentally lying in the place, and rub it over the piece with great compoſure before all the company, and then aſk if he had not improved the tints.

   [F]rom the neighbouring water, hear at morn / The hound, the horses' tread, and mellow horn; […]

7. 7

   figurativeSenses relating to a person or their qualities. Well-matured from age or experience; not impetuous or impulsive; calm, dignified, gentle.

   The cauſe vvas mine, I might haue died for both: / My yeeres vvere mellow, his but young and greene, / My death vvere naturall, but his vvas forced.

   Lets ſee: no Maiſter Greene-wit is not yet / So mellow in yeares as he; […]

   By Day or Night, / In florid Youth, or mellow Age, ſcarce fleets / One Hour without its Care!

   O! while they minister to thee, / Each vying with the other, / May Health return to mellow Age, / With Strength, her venturous brother; […]

8. 8

   figurativeSenses relating to a person or their qualities. Cheerful, genial, jovial, merry; also, easygoing, laid-back, calm, relaxed.

   In all thy humours, whether grave or mellow, / Thou'rt such a touchy, testy, pleasant fellow; / Hast so much wit, and mirth, and spleen about thee, / There is no living with thee, nor without thee.

   The Baronet was when I saw him as merry and mellow an old bachelor as ever followed a hound; and the love he had once felt for one woman had spread itself over the whole sex; so that there was not a pretty face in the whole country round, but came in for a share.

   I'm just mad about Saffron / A-Saffron's mad about me / I'm-a just mad about Saffron / She's just mad about me / They call me mellow yellow (quite rightly) / They call me mellow yellow (quite rightly) / They call me mellow yellow

9. 9

   figurativeSenses relating to a person or their qualities. Drunk, intoxicated; especially slightly or pleasantly so, or to an extent that makes one cheerful and friendly.

   […] Tanee was accosted by certain good fellows, friends and boon companions, who condoled with him on his misfortunes—railed against the queen, and finally dragged him away to an illicit vender of spirits, in whose house the party got gloriously mellow.

   Now the master, mellow almost to the verge of geniality, put his chair aside, turned his back to his audience, and began to draw a map of America on the blackboard, to exercise the geography class upon.

10. 10

    figurativeSenses relating to a person or their qualities. Pleasantly high or stoned, and relaxed after taking drugs; also, of drugs: slightly intoxicating and tending to produce such effects.

    These boys were heavy smokers, and like my high school classmates, were always "high", "cool" and "mellow." They were never violent and were helpful and respectful to the adults in our village.

    Late that night, everyone was sprawled on the sofas and bean bags in the lounge room, mellow because they'd smoked a couple of joints of hash.

    "It better be that mellow shit, Kerry," Wendy said, biting into a cookie. "I have to work tomorrow." / "It's mellow shit. You've smoked this stuff before."

11. 11

    slangPleasing in some way; excellent, fantastic, great.

noun

1. 1

   informalThe property of being mellow; mellowness.

2. 2

   informalA comfortable or relaxed mood.

   Yet, conversely, some people searched for the mellow […] Hope for flower power had faded, though the journey into the mellow did not represent idealism; rather, it spelled escape— […]

   Nothing like a suicide to harsh a mellow. On their third date, Lizzie had actually said to him, "You're sort of harshing my mellow." It made him wonder if she might be stupid, and not just young.

3. 3

   informalAlso main mellow: a close friend or lover.

   I've got attractions like I'm Elvis Costello / Adam Yauch grab the mic 'cause you know you're my mellow

verb

1. 1

   informalTo cause (fruit) to become soft or tender, specifically by ripening.

   Then Olives, ground in Mills, their fatneſs boaſt, / And Winter Fruits are mellow'd by the Froſt.

   As time improves the grape's authentic juice, / Mellows and makes the ſpeech more fit for uſe, / And claims a rev'rence in its ſhort'ning day, / That 'tis an honour and a joy to pay.

   Ever since we last saw her, in the interval between the spring and the autumn, the year had ripened the youth of the maiden, as it had mellowed the fruits of the earth; […]

2. 2

   informalTo cause (food or drink, for example, cheese or wine, or its flavour) to become matured and smooth, and not acidic, harsh, or sharp.

3. 3

   informalTo soften (land or soil) and make it suitable for planting in.

   This City is built of white Sun-burnt brickes, is watered with a ſmall ſtreame, which runs in two parts through the Towne, and meloes moſt of the Gardens and Groues within her, whereby ſhee yeelds a thankfull tribute of ſundry fruits.

   Having therefore made choice of ſome fit place of Ground, […] let it be Broken up the Winter before you ſow, to mellow it, eſpecially if it be a Clay, and then the furrow would be made deeper; […]

4. 4

   figurativeTo reduce or remove the harshness or roughness from (something); to soften, to subdue, to tone down.

   VVas thought-exceeding glorification, ſuch a cloyance and cumber vnto me, that I muſt leaue it: as Archeſilaus ouer-melodied, and too-much melovved & ſugred with ſvveet tunes, turned them aſide, and cauſed his ears to be nevv reliſhed vvith harſh ſovver and vnſauory ſounds?

   The page was eaſily mellowd with his attractive eloquence, as what heart of adamant, or encloſed in a crocodyles ſkin (which no yron will pierce) that hath the power to withſtand the Mercurian heavenly charme of hys rhetorique?

   For time ſhall with his ready pencil ſtand; / Retouch your figures with his ripening hand; / Mellow your colors, and imbrown the teint; / Add every grace, which time alone can grant; / To future ages ſhall your fame convey, / And give more beauties than he takes away.

   Ever, as on they bore, more loud / And louder rung the pibroch proud. / At first the sounds, by distance tame, / Mellowed along the waters came, / And, lingering long by cape and bay, / Wailed every harsher note away; […]

5. 5

   figurativeTo cause (a person) to become calmer, gentler, and more understanding, particularly from age or experience.

   The fervour of early feeling is tempered and mellowed by the ripeness of age.

6. 6

   figurativeTo cause (a person) to become slightly or pleasantly drunk or intoxicated.

   In the course of the day [Manuel] Lisa undertook to tamper with the faith of Pierre Dorion [Jr.], and, inviting him on board of his boat, regaled him with his favorite whiskey. When he thought him sufficiently mellowed, he proposed to him to quit the service of his new employers and return to his old allegiance.

   He found the bailiff riding by the farm, / And, talking from the point, he drew him in, / And there he mellow'd all his heart with ale, / Until they closed a bargain, hand in hand.

7. 7

   figurativeFollowed by out: to relax (a person); in particular, to cause (a person) to become pleasantly high or stoned by taking drugs.

8. 8

   informalTo mature and lose its harshness or sharpness.

9. 9

   informalTo be rendered soft and suitable for planting in.

10. 10

    figurativeTo lose harshness; to become gentler, subdued, or toned down.

    So now proſperitie begins to mellow / And drop into the rotten mouth of Death: […]

    [T]ill death us lay / To ripe and mellow, here we're stubborn clay.

    The Bannana's [taste] is no leſſe dainty: the tree mounts not high, but ſpreads in a moſt gracefull poſture: the fruit is long, not unlike a Soſſage in ſhape, in taſt moſt excellent: they ripen though you crop them immaturely; and from a dark-greene, mellow into a flaming yellow: […]

    The broad sun set, but not with lingering sweep, / As in the North he mellows o'er the deep, / But fiery, full and fierce, as if he left / The world forever, earth of light bereft, […]

11. 11

    figurativeTo relax; in particular, to become pleasantly high or stoned by taking drugs.

Forms

plural

mellows

comparative

mellower, more mellow

superlative

mellowest, most mellow

past tense

mellowed

past participle

mellowed

present participle

mellowing

third person singular

mellows