Expressions used in Everyday Spoken English in Social and Professional contexts
smooth things over
smooth things over
1) ease tension or anger between two or more people
- How to MemorizePopularity MediumProfessional MediumSocial
- I'm going to try and smooth things over
- AnalysisWhen you 'smooth things over' you attempt to resolve problems, disagreements or difficulties by talking to the people involved. If people are going through a tough time we say they are 'going through a rough patch' so 'smoothing things over' is the opposite and making things ok again.
- Social Examples (Advance)
- David is still angry at me over what happened. I think I'll buy him a beer after work and try to smooth things over.
- I often offend people accidentally, but luckily I am very good at smoothing things over afterwards.
- The therapist smoothed over relations between the arguing couple by getting them to talk to each other about their feelings.
- Professional Examples (Advance)
- We were in trouble with the public over violating regulations so we made a generous donation to the community in the hope of smoothing things over.
- Nothing the party could say or do will smooth over their recent scandal.
- Further Suggestions
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