In Washington, the administration has sought to smooth relations, particularly as midterm elections near.

A habit that smooths relations in all settings is modesty.

China is smoothing relations with most big countries.

Selling the computers would have smoothed relations with Moscow.

They said they would smooth relations with allies and tend to problems the current administration has left on the back burner.

They tried to smooth relations with middle school administrators.

The Chinese authorities themselves are ultimately the most serious obstacle to smooth relations.

In gestures grand and small, the Japanese have also tried to smooth relations.

However, his choice of words was unlikely to do anything to smooth relations around the Cabinet table.

Caterpillar said returning employees were divided into groups of about 20 to meet with supervisors in an effort to smooth relations.