mellow adj.
1. pleasantly drunk, tipsy.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Coxcomb V i: Being a little mellow in his ale. | |
| Womens sharpe revenge 172: All sorts of people and Nations are drunk in severall formes [...] a Welchman stew’d as mellow as a Pruine [...] a Scotchman mull’d with drinke [...] an Irishman pickl’d in Vsquebaugh. | |
| ‘Grinning Honour’ in Merry Drollery Compleat (1875) 38: Lets drink good Canary untill we grow mellow. | |
| ‘The Poet’s Ramble after Riches’ in Writings (1704) 11: And Stagg’ring Swore, his Brains being mellow, / St. Greg’ry was an honest Fellow. | |
| Dict. Canting Crew. | |
| Vulgus Britannicus IV 46: Supply’d their Wants with thin Old-Groats, / To cheer their Hearts and wet their Throats; / That they might Revel, Whoop and Hollow, / With more undaunted Zeal when Mellow. | |
| New Canting Dict. | |
| Sarah-Ad 19: My Mistress wou’d herself get mellow, / So hated a sly sober Fellow. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Midas I v: Our Squire, when mellow, ’Tis he shall do’t – he’s a rough, hect’ring fellow. | |
 | Epitaph on Goldsmith n.p.: ‘Here, Hermes,’ says Jove, who with nectar was mellow [F&H]. | |
| ‘The Dog and Duck Rig’ in I (1975) 79: She will laugh whilst you’ve bit to get mellow. | |
| ‘A Little Mellow’ Buck’s Delight 5: For ev’ry night we’ll merry be, / When we’re a little mellow. | |
| Gradus ad Cantabrigiam 115: A Cantab was banish’d a year, / Just for roving a little when mellow. | |
| Beppo in London x: A captivating fellow [...] fond of something that would make him mellow. | |
| Larks of Logic, Tom and Jerry I ii: nickem: Drink! why, dang it, you’re always drunk. snaggs: O, fie! a little mellow, but never maudling. | |
| ‘The Porker and the Ploughman’ in Tommarroo Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) IV 336: So Bob went in a public house [...] / And join’d a jovial party there, and soon got rather mellow. | |
| ‘Bet Farrell’ in Gentleman’s Spicey Songster 38: Now Bet you must know would get mellow, / Tho’ she was never known to drink gin. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | ‘How Sally Hooter Got Snake-Bit’ in Polly Peablossom’s Wedding 67: After patronizing all the groceries, and getting rather mellow, he grew garrulous in the extreme. | |
| (con. c.1840) Huckleberry Finn (2001) 265: They both got powerful mellow. | |
| Star 15 June 1/1: When the revelling crew was mellow, / And the vine juice passed along. | |
| in N.Y. Press 20 May in Stallman (1966) 52: Billie came in, mellow with drink and in the eloquent stage. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Aus. Sl. Dict. 48: Mellow, a little intoxicated. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 9 June 28/2: The play in itself is good enough. So is Walker’s whisky; but if you put a bottle of said whisky into a cask of water you’d have trouble getting mellow on the mixture. | |
| ‘An Episode’ in Bamford Mystery of Jack London (1931) 251: They were not tight; only ‘mellow’. | |
| ‘Sl. Synonyms for “Drunk”’ in AS IV:2 102: basted [...] mellow. | |
| Man About Harlem 26 Oct. [synd. col.] One of the girls was so mellow she decided to remove the one undergarment which she wore. | |
| What Makes Sammy Run? (1992) 15: ‘Good evening, young man,’ I said, feeling mellow on four or five highballs. | |
| Cross of Lassitude 292: Cocaine’s a light, mellow, crazy high. | |
| S.R.O. (1998) 436: So we got very mellow together. I went back [...] and got two more pints. | |
| Glitz 211: I get mellow when I drink. I mel-low. | |
| Pimp’s Rap 1: I had been sipping on rum and coke all night long. [...] I was feeling good and mellow. | |
| Big Ask 166: A fleshy man with a nailbrush haircut, tie loosened, getting mellow. |
2. (orig. US black, also mellowed) perfect, fine; esp. in phr. mellow as a cello; also adv. (see cite 1941).
| ‘The Spellin’-Bee’ in Lyrics of Lowly Life 100: She spelt the word, then looked at me so lovin’-like an’ mello’. | |
| Hi De Ho 16: mellow (adj.): all right, fine. Ex., ‘That’s mellow, Jack.’. | |
| ‘’Twixt Night ’n’ Dawn’ in Afro-American (Baltimore, MD) 7 Jan. 9/5: Even strangers will agree that the Big Apple [Cafe] is as mellow as a cello. | |
| N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 5 Apr. 13: The Cat was togged out mellow, ready in cuttin’ blue. | |
| ‘Keep Your Mind On Me’ 🎵 Baby your mind is fine, and your body’s mellow as can be. | |
| ‘Make with the Shape’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 113: It was strictly okay by him, mello as a cello, if you get what I mean, and fine as wine. | |
| Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 1: Gator, take a knock down to those blow tops, who are upping some real crazy riffs and dropping them on a mellow kick. | |
| Simply Heavenly Ii iii: The stuff is here and it’s mellowed! | |
| ‘Big Leg Woman’ 🎵 She’s so fine, she’s so mellow. | |
| ‘The Game’ in King Black Short Story Anthol. (1972) 302: I was in a mellow position. | |
| Dopefiend (1991) 101: ‘Mellow,’ Snake replied. | |
| Airtight Willie and Me 101: The bread is mellow, but the smack goes down the crapper. | |
| (con. 1960s) Blood Brothers 32: Everything was so mellow. | |
| Midnight Lightning 111: Quincy Jones captured a lot of that sound [...] Ooh, it was mellow. Real mellow. |
3. (US black) of people and situations, relaxed and comfortable.
| ‘Hep! Hep! The Jumpin’ Jive’ 🎵 Cats gonna beat out this mellow jive; / Hep-hep! / Beat it out on the mellow side. | |
| Jive and Sl. n.p.: Mellow ... Just right. | |
| In For Life 187: He was much more mellow [...] and he seemed concerned about many of the lifers. | |
| Hiparama of the Classics 19: Up go Nero, he feel very mellow in-deed. | |
| (con. 1930s) Lawd Today 197: This is a mellow joint. | |
| (con. 1950s) Whoreson 95: You sure are mellow, baby. | |
| (con. 1975) Times Square 348: At least he’ll stay mellow. | |
| Iced 136: I had never, ever, ever felt so mellow. | |
| Robbers (2001) 3: The mellow chilled-out days mere mythic history. | |
| Turning Angel 338: Up by the stage it’s mellow. Everybody’s hugging and holding hands. | |
| (con. 1969-1973) Big Whatever 23: Why would mellow cat Mel Parker own a fucking roscoe? | |
| Blood Miracles 92: ‘[Y]ou’re as fucking mellow as he is’. |
4. (US black) attractive, stylish.
| Slanguage Dict. 59: A mellow mouse – What a babe! | |
| Pimp 61: Everybody knows that your game is ‘mellow’. | |
| ‘Pimp in a Clothing Store’ in Milner & Milner (1972) 287: Well looka here, we got this old thing up here, this mellow fellow shirt, mel-low fel-low shirt. This shirt here is called ‘French Tony.’. |
5. (US black) of a friend, close, intimate.
| in Blues Records 108: [title] My Mellow Man. | |
| Black Jargon in White America 72: mellow adj. [...] Intimate, close. | |
| Detroit Free Press (MI) 6 July 17/1: mellow (we’re mellow) — friends. |
6. calm, peaceful, unconcerned with the material or painful, a state often induced by smoking cannabis.
| ‘Light Up’ 🎵 Light up! Let’s all get mellow / Light up! Here’s smoke in your eye! | |
| ‘Let’s Go Joe’ 🎵 Come on, Joe, let’s go! / Stuff’s really mellow on the Alamo. | |
| Really the Blues 75: The gauge [...] had them treetop tall, mellow as a cello. | |
| Pimp 79: This is light green ‘pot’ from ‘chilli gut’ country. It will make us mellow. | |
| Black Players 150: They returned [from injecting cocaine] somewhat ‘mellow,’ enjoying their high. | |
| Nam (1982) 91: A half of one of those joints — and those guys were smoking two or three joints by themselves and just getting mellow — half a joint got six guys high. | |
| (con. late 1950s) Amaze Your Friends (2019) 15: ‘You better crank up one of them reefers [...] get mellow’. | |
| Powder 71: She’d become more mellow, less hyper in the short time she’d worked with Guy. | |
| Get Your Cock Out 138: They’d [...] smoked a shit load of skunk to get them mellow. |
7. of drugs, relaxing.
| Current Sl. V:4 16: Mellow, adj. Clear, especially as applied to a certain part of a drug trip. | |
| Close Quarters (1987) 286: Smoke so mellow somebody gets blown away every time it rains hard. | |
| Finnegan’s Week 283: Naw, this ain’t even good cringe [...] I’m jist mellow. |
In compounds
(US black) fashionable, chic, well-dressed.
| ‘Idioms of the Present-Day American Negro’ in AS XIII:4 Dec. 314/2: MELLOW BACK. Adjective used to describe a killer. | |
| Dict. Afro-Amer. Sl. n.p.: Mellow-back...fashionably dressed. |
(US black) an attractive young black woman.
| ‘Jiver’s Bible’ in Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive. |
(US drugs) a drug user.
| Delinquency, Crime, and Social Process 806: The primary difference between a ‘mellow fellow’ and a ‘pot head’ lies in the regularity of drug use [...] Mellow dudes distinguish themselves from pot heads in that they take no special pride in using drugs. | |
| Underground Dict. (1972). |
(US teen) an attractive boy.
| Yank (Far East edn) 24 Mar. 18/2–3: Some of today’s teen-agers – pleasantly not many – talk the strange new language of ‘sling swing.’ In the bright lexicon of the good citizens of tomorrow [...] A boy whose mug and muscles appeal to the girls is a ‘mellow man’, a ‘hunk of heartbreak’ or a ‘glad lad’. |
(US black) the human head.
| ‘Jiver’s Bible’ in Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive. |
see separate entry.
In phrases
(US black) the exaggeratedly long jacket of a zoot suit n.
| ‘Jiver’s Bible’ in Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive. | |
| Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 53: Then you ease into your racket jacket with the mellow drag that has the sag. |
MDA (3,4-methylenedioxyamphetamine), a hallucinogenic that resembles LSD in its effects; it has the same chemical formula as MDMA, but is not identical.
| PiHKAL [Phenethylamines i Have Known and Loved] 🌐 MDA was called the ‘hug-drug’ and was said to stand for Mellow Drug of America. | |
| Community Counseling and Resource Center 🌐 ‘Designer Drugs’: MDA – love drug, speed for lovers, mellow drug of America. |
(orig. US) to calm oneself down, to calm someone down, to relax, esp. under the influence of drugs.
| Delinquency, Crime, and Social Process 806: I mean it’s a boss high (pleasant experience), mellow off, listen to music, just groove you know. | |
| Limo 149: I’m like mellowed out for the summer,’ said Jeff. | |
| Serial 25: How about we all smoke a little dope and mellow out. | |
| Harper’s Mag. Nov. 33: They will ‘hang loose’ and ‘lay back’ and, so mellowed out, the last thing of which they wish to hear is heroism. | |
| Tourist Season (1987) 58: Viceroy Wilson [...] lit up a joint, jacked up the a/c, and mellowed out. | |
| Lowspeak 98: Mellow off – to quieten down, as in ‘I told him to mellow off’. | |
| Source Nov. 138: A very lifted Bobo mellows out by the swimming pool. | |
| Dreamcatcher 97: Ma’am, they’re almost gone. Mellow out, okay? | |
| Mystery Bay Blues 246: It wasn’t bad pot [...] Les mellowed out on the couch while Grace got the video together. | |
| ‘Nothing to Lose’ in ThugLit Nov.-Dec. [ebook] ‘We’d [...] mellow out later with some weed’. |