Emily Dickinson Lexicon

QUAL'I-FY, v.t. [Fr. qualifier; It. qualificare; Sp. calificar; L. qualis, such, and facio, to make.]

1. To fit for any place, office, occupation or character; to furnish with the knowledge, skill or other accomplishment necessary for a purpose; as, to qualify a man for a judge, for a minister of state or of the gospel, for a general or admiral. Holiness alone can qualify men for the society of holy beings.
2. To make capable of any employment or privilege; to furnish with legal power or capacity; as, in England, to qualify a man to kill game.
3. To abate; to soften; to diminish; as, to qualify the rigor of a statute. I do not seek to quench your love's hot fire, But qualify the fire's extreme rage. Shak.
4. To ease; to assuage. Spenser.
5. To modify; to restrain; to limit by exceptions; as, to qualify words or expressions, or to qualify the sense of words or phrases.
6. To modify; to regulate; to vary; as, to qualify sounds.