How to Use cushion/soften the blow in a Sentence

cushion/soften the blow

phrase
  • There wasn't even the sniff of a price drop to help soften the blow.
    — Verity Burns, WIRED, 13 Sep. 2024
  • Green said there are steps districts can take to soften the blow of school closures.
    — Silas Allen, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 20 Feb. 2024
  • Some could choose to offer a portion of the rebate to cushion the blow.
    — Christiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 4 July 2025
  • But having something special to put up in its place can help soften the blow.
    — Alyssa Grabinski, Peoplemag, 15 Dec. 2023
  • Still, the bank thinks falling oil prices will help to soften the blow as this will translate to lower costs.
    — WSJ, 14 Dec. 2023
  • There’s little doubt in my mind that helped soften the blow of the fact that these new buildings were moving ahead.
    — James Barron, New York Times, 14 Apr. 2025
  • The companies are taking steps to soften the blow from tariffs.
    — Andrew Ross Sorkin, New York Times, 2 May 2025
  • Leo, her brother and a 15-year-old sophomore at the school, wanted to soften the blow.
    — Joe Sexton, New York Times, 16 Apr. 2024
  • Nothing like some designer deals to help soften the blow of a long weekend coming to a close, right?
    — Jake Henry Smith, Glamour, 2 Dec. 2024
  • The rate increase would be implemented in two stages to cushion the blow to customers.
    — Doug Ross, Chicago Tribune, 14 Feb. 2025
  • That stands to soften the blow for vehicles whose supply lines zig-zag across the continent.
    — Bloomberg, Mercury News, 27 Mar. 2025
  • Hinch prioritizes honesty with his players but knows that does not soften the blow.
    — Cody Stavenhagen, The Athletic, 25 Mar. 2025
  • Recent output increases, along with ones likely on the way, should help cushion the blow for consumers.
    — Matt Egan, CNN, 9 Aug. 2023
  • There’s a plan to soften the blow, with the report saying that Apple is building a battery case for the phone.
    — David Phelan, Forbes.com, 4 May 2025
  • China is unlikely to be able to count on exports—a key driver of growth since the start of the pandemic—to cushion the blow.
    — Stella Yifan Xie, WSJ, 31 Oct. 2022
  • The business stimulus measures Beijing rolled out a week later were meant to help cushion the blow.
    — John Feng, MSNBC Newsweek, 23 May 2025
  • Some leaders begin with less relevant statements to soften the blow, but folks can feel misled when the tough news comes behind it.
    — Expert Panel®, Forbes, 17 Oct. 2024
  • There are prompting techniques that can help to try and somewhat soften the blow of those biases, see my description at the link here.
    — Lance Eliot, Forbes, 20 Jan. 2025
  • After all, the former president threw $28 billion in aid at growers to cushion the blow of his trade war.
    — Isis Almeida, Orlando Sentinel, 13 Dec. 2024
  • Bündchen did give Brady a heads-up, per TMZ, but that didn’t seem to soften the blow of the reports.
    — Justin Curto, Vulture, 29 Oct. 2024
  • More than 20 years later, Timberlake has added a subtle disclaimer to soften the blow of his scathing hit.
    — Alexandra Del Rosario, Los Angeles Times, 15 Dec. 2023
  • That could help soften the blow a bit when A Minecraft Movie builds its all-ages crowd the weekend of April 4th.
    — Mark Hughes, Forbes, 24 Feb. 2025
  • The massive fall in output this year has led to a huge increase in government borrowing as the government sought to cushion the blow.
    — Fox News, 26 Nov. 2020
  • Many are current homeowners able to use current equity to reduce the size of their next mortgage and soften the blow of higher rates.
    — Anna Bahney, CNN, 22 Aug. 2023
  • Peloton has tried to cushion the blow to its growth by cutting the price of its popular bike and ramping up its ad spending, but growth remains stagnant.
    — Reuters, CNN, 5 Feb. 2022
  • Even the Tesla bulls must be questioning whether Elon himself sees where his stock is headed, and wants to get a lot more for free to cushion the blow.
    — Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez, Fortune, 25 Jan. 2024
  • The peanut butter crunch McFlurry will hopefully soften the blow of the Grimace shake leaving the menu.
    — Liza Esquibias, Peoplemag, 19 July 2023
  • To cushion the blow of reduced grain imports, Egypt last week banned the export of flour and wheat, as well as pasta, lentils and fava beans, to protect its food reserves.
    — Washington Post, 10 Mar. 2022
  • After that ruling, the White House announced a 12-month program to cushion the blow of payment resumption.
    — Alex Tanzi, Fortune, 20 July 2023
  • Throw in the reality that bonds have done little to soften the blow this time around, and the traditional investor in US stocks and bonds didn’t have a great start to the year.
    — Bret Kenwell, Forbes.com, 28 June 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'cushion/soften the blow.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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