What does “mollare” mean in Italian?

Mollare is what Italians say when someone gives up: “to quit,” “to let go,” or, about a relationship, “to dump” someone. It’s more resigned than the neutral smettere (“to stop”) — closer to “throwing in the towel.” In this clip, a nutrition coach starts three friends on an identical diet and predicts only one will stick with it: le altre due avranno già mollato — “the other two will have already quit.”

Mollare stretches into everyday life far beyond diets: mollare il lavoro (quit your job), mollare la palestra (stop going to the gym), mollare gli studi (drop out of school). As a command, mollami! means “let go of me!” — the physical sense the word started from: mollare comes from molle (“soft, slack,” from Latin mollis), the same root that gives molla, a mechanical spring — something that releases its tension the moment you stop holding it taut.