Sentence examples for soften it up from inspiring English sources

It's already been in effect for three years, but they want to soften it up just as its most important changes (mostly, the insurance mandate) begin to go into effect on Oct. 1.

The typical encounter has involved approaching an enemy force and maybe tossing a grenade to make it scramble or drop its shields, then shooting it to soften it up further, then running in to punch it, then hanging back to heal rapidly.

"She's good enough to soften it up," he says.

That'll only soften it up, so when you bring it outside, it could die off.

Winemakers add merlot to cabernet "to soften it up a bit".

You can soften it up, you can harden it, you can do what you want with it; it is what it is.

"It's a bit like an artillery assault on a target — the artillery assault softens it up for a ground invasion".

"Obviously, the rain softened it up a lot," Jason Day said after his three-under 69 put him a stroke off the lead.

"They were much firmer yesterday on the pro-am than they were today, so they must have softened it up a little bit.

"They are softening it up to sell it off … Major contracts for NHS work won by Tory donors … Who gave this prime minister permission to sell the NHS to his friends?" and much more besides.

Worse, it joined the kind of hysteria in the US that is following the Bush administration's agenda of "positioning" Venezuela as a "rogue state" and a threat to US interests: in other words, softening it up for attack.