Word.ws English Dictionary

smoothing over

smoothing over is the present participle and gerund of smooth over.

Meaning of smooth over

Verb

smooth over (third-person singular simple present smooths over, present participle smoothing over, simple past and past participle smoothed over)

  1. (transitive) To make (a rough surface) smooth
  2. (transitive) To pacify (e.g. rumours)
    • Then, as usual, the sheep broke into "Four legs good, two legs bad!" and the momentary awkwardness was smoothed over.1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC

Questions about smoothing over

What is smoothing over the present participle and gerund of?
Smoothing over is the present participle and gerund of smooth over.

Words near smoothing over in the dictionary

  1. smoothing away
  2. smoothing down
  3. smoothing iron
  4. smoothing irons
  5. smoothing out
  6. smoothing over
  7. smoothing someone's feathers
  8. smoothing up
  9. smoothingly
  10. smoothings
  11. smoothish

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: smoothing over (page history and authors); smooth over (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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