emollient
part of speech
noun (an emollient, emollients); adjective (emollient)
meaning for a pupil
1) An emollient is a cream or lotion that makes dry skin soft and smooth. tree →
2) (formal) Emollient words or behaviour are calming and gentle, meant to stop people getting angry. tree →
sense in the lessons
In health lessons and on chemist labels it means moisturiser for dry skin or eczema. In formal writing and news it describes soothing speeches. Phrases: «emollient cream», «an emollient tone».
examples
- The doctor gave me an emollient for my eczema. tree →
- Rub the emollient cream into dry patches of skin. tree →
- Emollients help skin keep its water in. tree →
- Use an emollient after a bath. tree →
- The head teacher spoke in an emollient tone to calm the angry parents. tree →
- (formal) The minister gave an emollient reply to the protesters. tree →
- Grandma uses an emollient on her hands in winter. tree →
- Emollient creams can make the bath slippery, so be careful. tree →
note
Say it «ee-MOL-ee-ent». Countable as a noun: an emollient, emollients. Safety: emollient creams can soak into clothes and bedding and make them burn more easily, so keep away from flames.
In the corpora
- Thick moisturisers called emollients every day, and steroid creams for flare-ups used as the doctor says, keep eczema calm.
- Doctors treat eczema with emollients every day and steroid creams for flare-ups, the times when it gets worse.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «emollient» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.