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.
© Webster 1913.
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.
© Webster 1913.
Mel"low, v. i.
To become mellow; as, ripe fruit soon mellows.
"Prosperity begins to
mellow."
Shak.
© Webster 1913.