Word.ws English Dictionary

softened the ground

softened the ground is the simple past and past participle of soften the ground.

Meaning of soften the ground

Verb

soften the ground (third-person singular simple present softens the ground, present participle softening the ground, simple past and past participle softened the ground)

  1. (idiomatic, often) To prepare or create favorable conditions (for something), especially with the intent of improving public acceptance of the forthcoming occurrence.
    • A steady rhythm of leaks and informed speculation prepared America for the President's Lewinsky confessional. . . . "The leaks definitely softened the ground for Clinton," says TIME White House correspondent Jay Branegan.1998 August 18, Tony Karon, “Who Knew?”, in Time, retrieved 02 Feb 2016

Questions about softened the ground

What is softened the ground the simple past and past participle of?
Softened the ground is the simple past and past participle of soften the ground.

Words near softened the ground in the dictionary

  1. soften up the ground
  2. softenable
  3. softened
  4. softened someone's cough
  5. softened the blow
  6. softened the ground
  7. softened up
  8. softened up the ground
  9. softened water
  10. softened waters
  11. softener

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: softened the ground (page history and authors); soften the ground (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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