Please settle an argument between me and DP..... what does 'mild' mean?

[Limth]

You may be preventing a fucking divorce here, so please help by answering this question -

Question: If I said "It's milder today than it was yesterday", would you take that to mean:
A: Its warmer than it was yesterday
B: Its colder than yesterday

Very many thanks!

It means less extreme, so in the UK in winter it's warmer, in Kenya in summer it's cooler.

Mild is a Goldilocks word. Not too hot, not too cold, not too bright, not too dark, not too rainy. Not extreme in any way. Just right. Nothing to write home about.

Milder than yesterday means less than whatever yesterday was. So heatwave oh it's milder today = cooler. Sub zero oh it's milder today = warmer.

A

It's means warmer. Usually

If were talking weather, definitely warmer. Or less cold. Doesn’t your DP know how to use a dictionary - paper or online?

I’d say in the context of what you said warmer. But it could mean both as it’s an adjective so just depends on the rest of the sentence.

It’s the depths of winter, the temperature plummets to below zero, and he’s there telling you put a scarf on when you go out because it’s “milder” than yesterday?

”Oh, I don’t know how Antarctic explorers do it. It’s so MILD at the South Pole…”

”Put that ice cream away before it melts. It needs to be kept at a MILD temperature.”

Milder means more mild i.e. less extreme. He’s fucking nuts, sorry 😁

I literally read your OP and thought what a silly question!

Then I saw the majority of the replies and realised perhaps it’s wasn’t such a silly question 😳

I’ve always thought milder to be colder.

I’ve only ever heard it when it’s been really hot for a few days and someone says it should be getting milder next week - as in cooler.

Definitely warmer!

I think this is spot on.

Not as cold as yesterday…how could it be anything else?

100% this.

it could be either for me.

If yesterday was FREEZING - Milder today would be warner.
If yesterday was unseasonally warm - Milder today would be cooler

and now I'm typing it "milder" doesnt even look like a proper word.

If yesterday was a heatwave?

ah cross post 😁

At present, and if talking about the weather, I would say warmer. But if it's in summer and yesterday was scorching, then cooler. Milder just means less extreme. So less hot. Less cold. Less windy. Less spicy etc.

Mild is definitely warmer.

I'm sure someone else (many others) will have said this, but a "mild" climate generally refers to a temperate one. Rightly or wrongly. So somewhere, like Cornwall, which hardly ever gets very cold, and usually doesn't get very hot. However mild is pretty much always used to mean "not too cold" in a weather context.

If it was chilly yesterday, warmer. If it was scorching yesterday, less hot.

Usually it's a "mild day" means it's warmer than you'd expect for winter, but context is always important.

Both depending on the season/temperature change.

Eg of it was 0 degrees yesterday but 8 today, it's milder.

If it was 30 degrees yesterday but 20 today, it's milder.

Mild basically means 'less harsh', whatever the context. So if it's winter like now, 'milder' means not as cold, not as harsh, as it has been...

The problem with relying on curries for your definitions is that "hot" in curry terms doesn't refer to temperature at all, but spiciness. Like, which is hotter, a tandoori at room temperature or a korma that just came off the stove? Is spicy weather a thing?

I'm reminded at this point about a fierce argument many years ago with my dad on the subject of genetic inheritance. He objected strongly when one of us referred to blue eyes as "recessive" vs brown eyes being "dominant" because he refused to believe that blue eyes were weaker! (Guess what colour his eyes were.) I tried to explain from a context point of view but he wasn't having it because words mean what they mean . DSis tried to approach it from the scientific angle, but got as far as saying "You know all cells contain DNA..." when DF said "No, I don't know that" in an awful tone we knew all too well meant "stop now before I start throwing things". I suppose that meant he won the argument, well in his mind anyway. The epitome of a fucknugget.

Warmer

Hmm warmer. Has to be right if it says so in the Cambridge Dictionary

But what is hot and what is cold varies too depending on where you are in the world. Heck, even within the UK. Go to the north of Scotland and see what the temp is when they start wearing their shorts and T-shirts. It's warm for them, but cold for people from the south of England. "Hot" and "cold" isn't a measurement - they are opinions.