Pronunciations (4)
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/ˈmɛləʊ/
Pronunciation notes
- Received-Pronunciation
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/ˈmɛloʊ/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
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ˈmɛləʊ
Pronunciation notes
- GB
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ˈmɛloʊ
Pronunciation notes
- US
Adjective
Soft or tender by reason of ripeness; having a tender pulp.
Usage- also
- Figurative
- of fruit
- Synonyms
- Examples
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a mellow apple
More examples (1)
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.
More examples (3)
A little longer, yet a little longer, / And Nature drops him down, without your Sin, / Like mellow Fruit, without a Winter Storm.
But Mary secretly rejoiced that the youngest of the three was very much what her father must have been when he wore a round jacket, and showed a marvellous nicety of aim in playing at marbles, or in throwing stones to bring down the mellow pears.
Ay, how fine they be in their liveries, and each of 'em as full of meat as an egg, and as sleek and as round about as a mellow codlin.
Matured and smooth, and not acidic, harsh, or sharp.
Usage- also
- Figurative
- of food or drink
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
Soft and easily penetrated or worked; not hard or rigid; loamy.
Usage- of soil
- Synonyms
- Examples
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More examples (3)
[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.
[I]f your soil was pretty mellow it would do, but if there came wet, wet, wet to make it all of a mummy, why then—
Mature; of crops: ready to be harvested; ripe.
Usage- Poetic
- usually
- of leaves
- Examples
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Nor autumn yet had bruſh'd from ev'ry ſpray, / With her chill hand, the mellow leaves away; […]
Fruitful and warm.
Usage- Poetic
- of a place
- Synonyms
- Examples
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And mellow Autumn, charged with bounteous fruit, / Where is she imaged? in what favoured clime / Her lavish pomp, and ripe magnificence?
More examples (1)
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; […]
Not coarse, brash, harsh, or rough; delicate, rich, soft, subdued.
Usage- Figurative
- usually
- of colour
- Synonyms
- Examples
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How ſvveet and mellovv, and yet hovv Majeſtick, is the Sound of it!
More examples (2)
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; […]
More examples (8)
But being the prima donna's near relation, / Who swore his voice was very rich and mellow, / They hired him, though to hear him you'd believe / An ass was practising recitative.
It was from gazing on the fairy hues, / That hung around the born and dying day; / The tender flush, whose mellow stain imbues / Heaven with all freaks of light, and where it lay / Deep-bosom'd in a still and waveless bay, / The sea reflected all that glow'd above, […]
Larger constellations burning, mellow moons and happy skies, / Breadths of tropic shade and palms in cluster, knots of Paradise.
It was a low house, with smooth grey thatch and buff walls, looking pleasant and mellow in the evening light.
True, there were the usual night-sounds of the country—the whir of night-birds, the buzzing of insects, the barking of distant dogs, the mellow lowing of far-off kine—but these didn't seem to break the stillness, they only intensified it, and added a grewsome melancholy to it into the bargain.
It was October again when Anne was ready to go back to school—a glorious October, all red and gold, with mellow mornings when the valleys were filled with delicate mists as if the spirit of autumn had poured them in for the sun to drain—amethyst, pearl, silver, rose, and smoke-blue.
When they told her about the robin and the first flight of the young ones she laughed a motherly little mellow laugh in her throat.
Here the stripped panelling was warmly gold and the pictures, mostly of the English school, were mellow and gentle in the afternoon light.
Senses relating to a person or their qualities. Well-matured from age or experience; not impetuous or impulsive; calm, dignified, gentle.
Usage- Figurative
- Examples
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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; […]
More examples (3)
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; […]
But crispness was no longer Marilla's distinguishing characteristic. As Mrs. Lynde told her Thomas that night. "Marilla Cuthbert has got mellow. That's what."
Senses relating to a person or their qualities. Cheerful, genial, jovial, merry; also, easygoing, laid-back, calm, relaxed.
Usage- Figurative
- Synonyms
- Examples
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More examples (3)
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
Senses relating to a person or their qualities. Drunk, intoxicated; especially slightly or pleasantly so, or to an extent that makes one cheerful and friendly.
Usage- Figurative
- Synonyms
- Examples
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More examples (2)
[…] 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.
Senses 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.
Usage- US usage
- Figurative
- Slang
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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."
Pleasing in some way; excellent, fantastic, great.
Usage- Slang
Noun
The property of being mellow; mellowness.
Usage- US usage
- Informal
A comfortable or relaxed mood.
Usage- US usage
- Informal
- specifically
- Examples
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More examples (2)
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.
Also main mellow: a close friend or lover.
Usage- US usage
- Informal
- Examples
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I've got attractions like I'm Elvis Costello / Adam Yauch grab the mic 'cause you know you're my mellow
Verb
To cause (fruit) to become soft or tender, specifically by ripening.
Usage- US usage
- Informal
- Transitive
- Examples
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Then Olives, ground in Mills, their fatneſs boaſt, / And Winter Fruits are mellow'd by the Froſt.
More examples (2)
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; […]
To cause (food or drink, for example, cheese or wine, or its flavour) to become matured and smooth, and not acidic, harsh, or sharp.
Usage- US usage
- Informal
- Transitive
To soften (land or soil) and make it suitable for planting in.
Usage- US usage
- Informal
- Regional
- Transitive
- Examples
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More examples (2)
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; […]
To reduce or remove the harshness or roughness from (something); to soften, to subdue, to tone down.
Usage- US usage
- Figurative
- Informal
- Transitive
- Examples
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More examples (5)
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.
[B]y the prevalence of fanaticiſm, a gloomy and ſullen diſpoſition eſtabliſhed itſelf among the people; a ſpirit, obſtinate and dangerous; independent and diſorderly; animated equally with a contempt of authority, and a hatred to every other mode of religion, particularly to the catholic. In order to mellow these humours, James [VI and I] endeavoured to infuſe a ſmall tincture of ceremony into the national worſhip, and to introduce ſuch rites as might, in ſome degree, occupy the mind, and pleaſe the ſenſes, without departing too far from that ſimplicity, by which the reformation was diſtinguiſhed.
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; […]
[T]ime had mellowed the marble to the colour of honey, so that unconsciously one thought of the bees of Hymettus, and softened their outlines.
To cause (a person) to become calmer, gentler, and more understanding, particularly from age or experience.
Usage- US usage
- Figurative
- Informal
- Transitive
- Examples
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The fervour of early feeling is tempered and mellowed by the ripeness of age.
To cause (a person) to become slightly or pleasantly drunk or intoxicated.
Usage- US usage
- Figurative
- Informal
- Transitive
- Examples
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More examples (2)
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.
Followed by out: to relax (a person); in particular, to cause (a person) to become pleasantly high or stoned by taking drugs.
Usage- US usage
- also
- Figurative
- Informal
- Reflexive
- Transitive
To mature and lose its harshness or sharpness.
Usage- US usage
- Informal
- Intransitive
- of food or drink
To be rendered soft and suitable for planting in.
Usage- US usage
- Informal
- Intransitive
- Regional
- of soil
To lose harshness; to become gentler, subdued, or toned down.
Usage- US usage
- Figurative
- Informal
- Intransitive
- Examples
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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.
More examples (3)
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, […]
The very furniture of the room seemed to mellow and deepen in its tone; the ceiling and walls looked blacker and more highly polished, the curtains of a ruddier red; the fire burnt clear and high, and the crickets in the hearth-stone chirped with a more than wonted satisfaction.
To relax; in particular, to become pleasantly high or stoned by taking drugs.
Usage- US usage
- Figurative
- Informal
- Intransitive
- followed by out
- of a person
Adjective
unhurried and relaxed
- Synonyms
- Examples
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a mellow conversation
having a full and pleasing flavor through proper aging
- Synonyms
- Examples
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a mellow port
mellowed fruit
softened through age or experience
- Synonyms
- Examples
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mellow wisdom
the peace of mellow age
slightly and pleasantly intoxicated from alcohol or a drug (especially marijuana)
- Synonyms
Adverb
in a mellow manner
- Synonyms
Verb
soften, make mellow
- Broader terms
- Examples
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Age and experience mellowed him over the years
become more relaxed, easygoing, or genial
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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With age, he mellowed
make or grow (more) mellow
- Broader terms
- Examples
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These apples need to mellow a bit more
The sun mellowed the fruit