gentling

Verb

gentle (third-person singular simple present gentles, present participle gentling, simple past and past participle gentled)

1. (intransitive) To become gentle.
   • A September morning brought a stiff northeast wind that blew at 30 miles an hour and kept small craft out of the sound. But by afternoon the wind gentled and the sound smoothed.1987 October, Charles E. Cobb, Jr., “North Carolina's Outer Banks”, in National Geographic, volume 172, number 4, page 510
2. (obsolete, transitive) To ennoble.
   • […] For he to-day that sheds his blood with me / Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, / This day shall gentle his condition […]c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
3. (transitive, animal husbandry) To break; to tame; to domesticate.
   • Yakima could have tried to catch him, gentle him as Wolf had been gentled, but having two stallions in his cavvy would lead to a different kind of trouble.2008, Frank Leslie, The Killing Breed, Penguin, →ISBN
4. (transitive) To soothe; to calm; to make gentle.
   • A hornist, his playing gentled by perspective, is out of sight within the woods, but his notes are heard through or over the murmuring mix of bird song and breeze in leaves.1996, William C. Loring, An American Romantic-realist Abroad: Templeton Strong and His Music, Scarecrow Press, →ISBN, page 201

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