Also 6 souther. [f. SOOTHE v.]
† 1. One who assents or agrees with another; a flatterer. Obs.
1553. T. Wilson, Rhet., 106 b. This worlde … hath ouer many such as neuer honest man was, that is to saie, flatterers, fawners, and southers of mennes saiynges.
1593. Abp. Bancroft, Daungerous Positions, IV. i. 135. An Innkeeper, (a receiver of all, and a soother of euery man for his gaine).
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., xvi. 89. But soothers find the way preferment most to win.
a. 1661. Holyday, Juvenal (1673), 189. Wife, children, and themselves they do distress, They’d tire the soother Cossus.
2. One who or that which soothes, calms, comforts, etc.
1780. S. J. Pratt, Emma Corbett (ed. 4), III. 137. Dear friend—author of many a comfort—soother of many a care.
c. 1811. Mrs. Opie, in A. J. C. Hare, Gurneys of Earlham (1895), I. 239. Thou goest, sweet soother, every wound to heal.
1824. Scott, Ess. on Romance, Misc. Wks. 1870, VI. 164. The professional poet … becomes the companion and soother only of idle and convivial hours.
1865. C. Stanford, Symb. Christ, vii. 191. Finding in Him the hero of your proud romance, and the soother of your indolence.
3. A soothing thing or influence.
In recent use spec. an artificial teat, ring, etc., given to a baby to suck in order to quiet it.
1794. R. J. Sulivan, View Nat., I. 19. The warm … affections are in every instance the soothers of melancholy.
1803. Jane Porter, Thaddeus (1826), III. xv. 326. Those gentle amiabilities which are the soothers and sweeteners of life.
1841. Lytton, Nt. & Morn., I. vi. A pipe is a great soother.
