Mel"low (?), a.
[Compar. Mellower (?);
superl. Mellowest.] [OE. melwe; cf.
AS. mearu soft, D. murw, Prov. G. mollig soft,
D. malsch, and E. meal flour.]
1. Soft or tender by reason of ripeness;
having a tender pulp; as, a mellow apple.
2. Hence: (a) Easily worked
or penetrated; not hard or rigid; as, a mellow soil.
"Mellow glebe." Drayton (b) Not
coarse, rough, or harsh; subdued; soft; rich; delicate; -- said of
sound, color, flavor, style, etc. "The mellow horn."
Wordsworth. "The mellow-tasted Burgundy."
Thomson.
The tender flush whose mellow stain imbues
Heaven with all freaks of light.
Percival.
3. Well matured; softened by years; genial;
jovial.
May health return to mellow age.
Wordsworth.
As merry and mellow an old bachelor as ever
followed a hound.
W. Irving.
4. Warmed by liquor; slightly
intoxicated. Addison.
Mel"low, v. t. [imp. & p.
p. Mellowed (?); p. pr. & vb. n.
Mellowing.] To make mellow. Shak.
If the Weather prove frosty to mellow it [the
ground], they do not plow it again till April.
Mortimer.
The fervor of early feeling is tempered and
mellowed by the ripeness of age.
J. C.
Shairp.
Mel"low, v. i. To become mellow;
as, ripe fruit soon mellows. "Prosperity begins to
mellow." Shak.
