Word.ws English Dictionary

emollient

UK/ɪˈmɒl.ɪ.ənt//ɪˈmɑl.jənt/

emollient noun: something which softens or lubricates the skin; moisturizer.

Noun

emollient (plural emollients)

  1. Something which softens or lubricates the skin; moisturizer.
    • [T]he effectiveness of an emollient is based on its ability to prevent water evaporation, […]2008, Carol A. Miller, Nursing for Wellness in Older Adults (Fifth edition), Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, p. 505
  2. (figuratively) Anything soothing the mind, or that makes something more acceptable.
    • "Several of the visitors then partook for a short time, with evident Parisian gusto, of the pleasures of the dance," yes--we did, and the lovely girls with whom we polked (ladies being one of the Club emollients) were eloquent in praise of our exquisite tournures which were shown to such advantage...1848, Mr. Jolly Green, “The visit of the French national guards to London”, in The New Monthly Magazine
    • Hail, Poetry, thou heav’n-born maid! / Thou gildest e’en the pirate’s trade. / Hail, flowing fount of sentiment! / All hail, divine emollient!1879, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, composer, The Pirates of Penzance […], Philadelphia: J.M. Stoddart & Co., published 1880, →OCLC

Adjective

emollient (comparative more emollient, superlative most emollient)

  1. Moisturizing.
    • Twenty leeches were ordered to be applied round the nose every two days; frequent emollient fomentations; the local vapour bath; general bathing; stimulating pedilavia; a strict regimen; vegetables, milk, white meats; demulcent or acidulated drinks; avoidance of exposure to the sun or to cold air...1827 May 1, “XXVI. Spreading Ulcer of the Nose.”, in James Copland, John Darwall, John Conolly, editors, The London Medical Repository and Review, volume XXVII, number 161 (New Series, volume IV...
  2. (figuratively) Soothing or mollifying.
    • [I]nſtead of Honey, Rob of Elder, Conſerve of Roſes, or Syrup of Violets; Glyſters, Pedilavia of emollient Decoctions with Nitre; or Elder, Vinegar, or Focus's of the ſame, applied with Sponges behind the Ears, to the Armpits, Groins, Hams, &c. or with Barley-water and a little Roſe-vinegar.1749, [Thomas Short], “[Of the Symptoms of Fevers, and Their Cure.] 10th, Of Feverish Heat”, in A General Chronological History of the Air, Weather, Seasons, Meteors, &c. in Sundry Places and...
    • There is an element of emollient sentimentality, especially in the way the plot lines are neatly tied up, but a good deal of storytelling gusto and ingenuity, and there are also echoes (perhaps deliberately engineered) of Moretti’s greatest film and Cannes Palme d’Or winner, The Son’s Room, from...2021 July 11, Peter Bradshaw, “Three Floors review – Nanni Moretti melodrama lacks profundity”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

emollient meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada

emollient in Tamil

மிருதுவாக்குகிற மருந்து

emollient in Bengali

ত্বক নরম করার প্রলেপ, ক্রিম

emollient in Malayalam

moisturizing, soothing, softening
മൃദുവാക്കുന്ന, മയം വരുത്തുന്ന, പതം വരുത്തുന്ന, ആർദ്രീകരിക്കുന്ന, നനവുണ്ടാക്കുന്ന, മാർദ്ദവപ്പെടുത്തുന്ന
appeasing, conciliatory, conciliating
മയപ്പെടുത്തുന്ന, അനുരഞ്ജകം, ആശ്വാസക, ആശ്വാസകം, രഞ്ജിപ്പിക്കുന്ന, തൃപ്തിപ്പെടുത്തുന്ന
cream, moisturizer, lotion
കുഴമ്പ്, കൊഴമ്പ്, പൂച്ചുമരുന്ന്, പുരട്ടുന്ന മരുന്ന്, ഔഷധതെെലം, പിട്ടില

emollient in Kannada

ಮೆತ್ತಗೆ ಮಾಡುವ, ತಣಿಸುವ
More languagesFewer languages
emollient in Arabic
مُرَطِّب muraṭṭib
emollient in Indonesian
emolien

Examples of emollient in a sentence

  • Attentive conversation is an emollient I lack sorely aboard Prophetess & the doctor is a veritable polymath.2004, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas, London: Sceptre (Hodder and Stoughton), →ISBN, page 5:
  • Summit exposes tensions over AI development despite emollient Chinese tone [title]2023 November 4, Madhumita Murgia, Anna Gross, Cristina Criddle, “Summit exposes tensions over AI development despite emollient Chinese...

Forms of emollient

Noun
pluralemollients
Adjective
comparativemore emollient
superlativemost emollient

Origin of emollient

From French émollient, from Latin emolliēns, present active participle of ēmolliō (“make soft”), from ex- + molliō, from mollis (“soft”). By surface analysis, e- + Latin moll- + -i- + -ent.

Words formed from emollient

Questions about emollient

What does emollient mean?
Emollient means something which softens or lubricates the skin; moisturizer.
What is emollient in Tamil?
Emollient in Tamil is மிருதுவாக்குகிற மருந்து. See Emollient meaning in Tamil.
How do you use emollient in a sentence?
Attentive conversation is an emollient I lack sorely aboard Prophetess & the doctor is a veritable polymath.
What part of speech is emollient?
Emollient can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce emollient?
Emollient is pronounced /ɪˈmɒl.ɪ.ənt/ (UK).
What is the plural of emollient?
The plural of emollient is emollients.

Words near emollient in the dictionary

  1. emolliated
  2. emolliates
  3. emolliating
  4. emollience
  5. emolliences
  6. emollient
  7. emolliently
  8. emollients
  9. emollition
  10. emollitions
  11. emoloa

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: emollient (page history and authors); emollient (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); emollient (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); emollient (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); emollient (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-emollient.ogg.

Cite this entry: “emollient.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/emollient. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.