soften the blow

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

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

1. (figuratively) To reduce the negative impact of something.

   Synonym: cushion the blow

   • 2014, Noah-Jay Michael, Mastering Conversational Hypnosis: Learn the Principles of Hypnotic Language Patterns, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 52:

     Traditionally, people gave a compliment first so it would soften the blow of what was to come after. It does not soften the blow, it fully erases the fact that they ever been complimented because their mind is focused on the last thing they heard, […]

   • 2015, Cindy Sanford, Letters to a Lifer: The Boy ‘Never to be Released’, Waterside Press, →ISBN, page 181:

     In prison there are no loved ones to soften the blow of such terrible news. I hated being the one to tell him, but it was infinitely better than if he got the news from someone he rarely heard from.

   • 2022 September 4, Erika Solomon, “Wary of Cold Days and Hot Tempers, Europe’s Leaders Vow Economic Relief”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     European governments moved this weekend to soften the blow of soaring costs and a deepening energy crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine, and scrambled to prepare for the possibility of social unrest as the days grow colder.

• sugarcoat the pill

• “soften the blow”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.