mellow

SayMEL-oh/ˈmɛloʊ/UK/ˈmɛləʊ/

Noun pluralmellows (some meanings)

25 meanings of mellow

1
relaxedadjectivefiguratively
Of a person, cheerful and good-humored, or easygoing and relaxed.
Our new roommate is pretty mellow, so the apartment feels a lot calmer.
The coach was in an unusually mellow mood after the win, joking with reporters.
Similarcheerful, cheery, content, convivial, casual
Oppositeuptight, tense, irritable, edgy
Note
Two moods share this sense, convivial and easygoing. The convivial one runs through older writing: Addison sets mellow against grave, and Irving’s baronet is “as merry and mellow an old bachelor as ever followed a hound.” The easygoing one is unbothered rather than merry. Around a dinner table the convivial kind can shade into the tipsy meaning.
2
warm toneadjectivefiguratively
Of a color, sound, style, or the like, soft, rich, and subdued, with nothing coarse, brash, or harsh about it.
The cellist's mellow tone filled the small concert hall.
Late-afternoon sun gave the old brick houses a mellow glow.
Similarwarm, rich, soft, smooth, subdued
Oppositeharsh, shrill, strident, garish
Note
Sound and color are where this sense does most of its work: Wordsworth hears “the mellow horn” across the water at morning, and Dryden’s company leaves “the mellow harp” unheard for conversation. Painters’ talk used it too, and Goldsmith mocks a connoisseur who judged a picture “not mellow enough” and rubbed brown varnish over it.
3
adjectivefiguratively
Of food or drink, or its flavor, matured and smooth rather than acidic, harsh, or sharp.
Aged in oak, the whiskey develops a mellow, rounded flavor.
Two years in the cellar left the cheddar mellower and far less tangy.
Similarsmooth, mild, rounded, mature, soft
Oppositeharsh, sharp, acidic
4
older and calmeradjectivefiguratively
Of a person, well matured by age or experience, and calm, gentle, and dignified rather than impulsive.
The senator grew mellower in his later years, measured where he had once been fiery.
Her mellow, unhurried judgment made her the one everyone consulted in a crisis.
Similarcalm, composed, level-headed, even-tempered, placid
Oppositefiery, impulsive, volatile
Note
A life can ripen too, and the old contrast of green and mellow comes along: Kyd’s speaker says, “My years were mellow, his but young and green.” The phrases to know are mellow age, which Smollett sets against florid youth, and mellow in years.
5
verbfigurativelyintransitive
To grow less harsh, becoming gentler, quieter, or more restrained.
Critics noticed that the band's sound had started to mellow by its third album.
Her views on the subject mellowed considerably once she met the families involved.
Similarsoften, moderate
Oppositeharden, intensify
6
verbcolloquialfigurativelyUSintransitive
Of a person, used with out: to relax, or in particular to become pleasantly high from taking drugs.
Mellow out. The flight is only twenty minutes late.
They passed a joint around the campfire and mellowed out under the stars.
Similarrelax, chill, unwind, calm
Oppositestress, tense
7
verbintransitive
Of food or drink, or its flavor, to mature and lose its harshness or sharpness.
Leave the chili in the fridge overnight so the spices can mellow.
A young red like this one mellows with a few years in the bottle.
Similarmature, soften, develop, age
8
verbfigurativelytransitive
To make a person calmer, gentler, and more understanding, especially through age or experience.
Decades in the classroom had mellowed the once-fiery teacher.
Experience tends to mellow even the most hot-headed managers.
Similarsoften, calm, mature
Oppositeharden, embitter
9
softenverbfigurativelytransitive
To reduce or remove the harshness or roughness of something, making it softer or more subdued.
A good editor can mellow the harshest criticism without blunting its point.
Heavy curtains mellowed the traffic noise from the street below.
Similarsoften, temper, muffle, dampen, moderate
Oppositesharpen, intensify
10
peace of mindnouncolloquialUSuncountable
A comfortable, relaxed mood or frame of mind.
A surprise call from his boss on Saturday totally harshed his mellow.
After a week at the lake, she had found her mellow and meant to keep it.
Similarbuzz, calm
Note
Its natural home is the phrase harsh someone’s mellow, to spoil a good mood. In Kurt Andersen’s Turn of the Century (1999), Lizzie tells her date, “You’re sort of harshing my mellow,” and he wonders whether she is stupid and not just young: the phrase has a youthful, slangy ring. With the, it names a state to retreat into, the counterculture’s “journey into the mellow.”

11
ripe (fruit)adjectivefiguratively
Of fruit, soft or tender because it is ripe, and having a tender pulp.
By late September the apples on the south wall were mellow and sweet.
She pressed a thumb into the plum to see whether it was mellow yet.
Similarsoft, tender, yielding
Oppositeunripe, hard
Note
Ripe fruit is where the word starts. Late Middle English melowe meant “ripe, juicy, sweet”; further back the origin is uncertain, and one suggestion links it to an old word for meal or flour. Ripe fruit comes away easily, which is the point of Shakespeare’s Hercules shaking down “mellow fruit” and of Dryden’s Nature dropping a man “like mellow fruit, without a winter storm.”
12
slightly drunkadjectivefiguratively
Drunk, especially in a mild or pleasant way, or enough to make one cheerful and friendly.
A few beers in, the usually stiff accountant was mellow and chatty.
The brandy left him mellower than anyone had seen him in years.
Similartipsy, merry, buzzed
Oppositesober
13
high (drugs)adjectiveslangfigurativelyUS
Pleasantly high and relaxed after taking drugs; also, of a drug, mildly intoxicating and tending to produce that state.
He got mellow on the porch after a couple of hits and forgot all about the argument.
She only buys the mellow stuff, nothing that leaves her jittery or paranoid.
Similarhigh, stoned, baked
Oppositesober, straight
Note
In chiefly American drug slang it names the easy end of being high. Cecil Young remembers boys who were always “high,” “cool” and “mellow,” never violent, and the word keeps company with those two. It can describe the drug as well as the user, and the way into that state is mellowing out.
14
verbcolloquialfigurativelyUSreflexivetransitive
With out, to relax a person or oneself; in particular, to make someone pleasantly high on drugs.
She put on some jazz to mellow herself out before the interview.
A shared joint had mellowed the whole group out by the time the band came on.
Similarrelax, calm, chill, settle
Oppositestress, agitate
Note
The out is part of the verb every time: something mellows you out, or you mellow yourself out, with a pronoun object sitting between the two words. The phrasal verb began in American English and stays informal. Without any object, the same phrase means simply to relax.
15
smooth out (taste)verbtransitive
To make food or drink, such as cheese or wine, or its flavor, matured and smooth instead of acidic, harsh, or sharp.
Aging in charred oak barrels mellows the whiskey's bite.
Cellar the bottles for a few years to mellow the wine's sharp edges.
Similarsoften, smooth, temper, mature
16
warm and fertileadjectiveliterary
Of a place, climate, or weather, warm and fruitful.
The south slope, mellow and sheltered, gave the best grapes in the region.
Those mellow September days loaded the orchard branches until they bent.
Similarwarm, balmy, mild, fruitful
Oppositeharsh, bleak, cold
Note
Autumn is the season that earns it. Keats’s “To Autumn” (1819) hails the “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,” and Wordsworth’s “mellow Autumn” comes “charged with bounteous fruit.” Like the ripe-crop meaning, it keeps to verse and to prose with a lyrical lean.
17
ripe (crops)adjectiveliterary
Of leaves, seeds, plants, and the like, mature; of crops, ripe and ready to be harvested.
By August the barley stood mellow and gold, ready for the harvest.
She waited until the bean pods were dry and the seeds mellow before saving them for spring.
Similarripe, mature
Oppositeunripe, green, immature
Note
This is a poet’s word rather than a farmer’s: Cowper’s autumn has not yet brushed “the mellow leaves away.” Of real crops in plain prose, ripe or ready is the ordinary choice; mellow is picked when a writer wants the season’s warmth along with its timing.
18
verbfigurativelytransitive
To make a person slightly or pleasantly drunk or intoxicated.
Well mellowed by the host's brandy, the guests began telling old stories.
The salesman tried to mellow his clients with free whiskey before talking price.
Similarlubricate, relax
Oppositesober
Note
The passive and the participle are its usual shapes: mellowed by wine, well mellowed by the host’s brandy. Behind the drink there is often a purpose. In Irving’s Astoria, Lisa plies Dorion with whiskey and makes his proposal once he thinks him “sufficiently mellowed”; in Tennyson’s “The Brook,” a man “mellow’d all his heart with ale” until the two closed a bargain.
19
soft (soil)adjective
Of soil, soft and loamy, easily dug into or worked rather than hard or rigid.
Years of compost had turned the heavy clay into a deep, mellow loam.
Seeds sprout quickly where the ground is mellow and well drained.
Similaryielding
Oppositehard, heavy
20
nouncolloquialUS
The quality or state of being mellow.
There's a mellow to her playing these days that wasn't there when she was younger.
The bourbon has a rounded mellow that the younger bottles lack.
Similarwarmth, softness, smoothness, richness
Oppositeharshness, sharpness
Note
Casual American English turns the adjective into a noun for the quality itself, so a voice, a guitar or a bourbon can have a mellow of its own. When the mellow belongs to someone’s mood rather than to a thing, it becomes the relaxed-mood noun.
21
ripen fruitverbtransitive
To make fruit soft or tender, specifically by ripening it.
Growers leave persimmons on the branch until frost has mellowed them.
Another week of sunshine should mellow the peaches nicely.
Similarripen, soften
22
greatadjectiveslang
Pleasing in some way; excellent or great.
He's been showing off his mellow new kicks to everybody on the block.
The fireworks last night were mellow, the biggest and loudest show the city has put on in years.
Similarcool, great, awesome, excellent
Oppositelame, awful
Note
In chiefly African-American slang it works as plain approval, said of a party, a song or a piece of good news. Context has to settle which sense is meant, because the same word also describes an easygoing mood: a mellow party might be a great one or merely a quiet one.
23
close friendnouncolloquialUScountable
A close friend or a lover, also called someone's main mellow.
Me and my mellow are heading downtown tonight.
Everybody knew Rita was his main mellow, so nobody else asked her to dance.
Similarsqueeze, sweetheart, partner, buddy
Note
African-American Vernacular uses it with an owner: my mellow, her main mellow. Main picks out the one friend or sweetheart who comes first. The plain form turns up in “Do It,” on Ill Communication (1994), where the singer calls the listener his mellow.
24
loosen (soil)verbdialectalBritishtransitive
To make land or soil softer so that it is ready to be planted.
He dug in plenty of old manure to mellow the stiff clay before spring sowing.
Hard frosts had mellowed the bare earth by the time it was ready for seed.
Similarsoften, loosen
Note
The farmer’s verb has dropped out of general English and lives on only in British regional speech. Evelyn’s Sylva (1664) shows the method: break the ground up the winter before sowing “to mellow it, especially if it be a clay.” Water can do the work too: Thomas Herbert describes a stream that “meloes most of the gardens” of the city it runs through.
25
verbdialectalBritishintransitive
Of soil, to become soft and suitable for planting in.
Turned in early winter and left rough, the ground mellows nicely by spring.
Stiff clay needs a hard winter to mellow before it will take seed.
Similarsoften, loosen
Note
Here the ground does the mellowing itself, and no farmer appears in the sentence: the clay mellows, the soil mellows. It is the intransitive partner of the farmer’s verb and shares its fate, surviving only in British regional speech.

Practice

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Origin

The adjective comes from Late Middle English melowe, melwe (“ripe, mellow; juicy; sweet”), whose further origin is uncertain: it may come from an attributive use of Middle English melow (“meal, flour”), from Old English melo, Proto-Germanic *melwą and Proto-Indo-European *melh₂- (“to crush; to grind”), or it may be a variant of Middle English merow (“soft, tender”), from Old English meru, mearu, Proto-Germanic *marwaz (“soft, mellow; brittle, delicate”) and Proto-Indo-European *mer(w)- (“to rub; to pack”). The noun and verb both come from the adjective, though the origin of the noun sense “close friend; lover” is unknown and may also come from the adjective. Related words include Dutch murw and West Frisian murf (“tender”) and German mürbe (“soft, tender”).