soft

adverb

No English definition recorded for this entry.

L333710 on Wikidata ↗

adjective

soft to the touch
not hard

L3641 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /sɒft/ / /sɔːft/ / /sɔft/

adj

Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *sem- Proto-Germanic *samþuz /*samftuz Proto-Germanic *-jaz Proto-West Germanic *-ī Proto-West Germanic *samft(ī) Old English sōfte Middle English softe English soft From Middle English softe, from Old English sōfte, alteration of earlier sēfte (“soft”), from Proto-West Germanic *samft(ī) (“level, even, smooth, soft, gentle”) (compare *sōmiz (“agreeable, fitting”)), from Proto-Indo-European *semptio-, *semtio-, from *sem- (“one, whole”). Cognate with West Frisian sêft (“gentle; soft”), Dutch zacht (“soft”), German Low German sacht (“soft”), German sanft (“soft, yielding”), Old Norse sœmr (“agreeable, fitting”), samr (“same”). More at seem, same.

Easily giving way under pressure.
“My head sank easily into the soft pillow.”
“My favorite Greek cheese is the creamy, sheepy manouri: delicately scented and almost spreadable, it’s like a softer, pudgier feta.”
Smooth and flexible; not rough, rugged, or harsh.
“Polish the silver with a soft cloth to avoid scratching.”
“soft silk; a soft skin”
Quiet.
“I could hear the soft rustle of the leaves in the trees.”
“Her voice was ever soft, / Gentle, and low, — an excellent thing in woman.”
Gentle.
“There was a soft breeze blowing.”
“I would to God my heart were flint, like Edward's; / Or Edward's soft and pitiful, like mine.”
Expressing gentleness or tenderness; mild; conciliatory; courteous; kind.
“soft eyes”
“A soft answer turneth away wrath.”
Gentle in action or motion; easy.
“On her soft axle, white she paces even, / And bears thee soft with the smooth air along.”
Limp, weak.
Weak in character; impressible.
“The deceiver soon found this soft place of Adam's.”
Requiring little or no effort; easy.
“Before that they had been a good deal on the move, trekking about after the white man, who was one of those rolling stones that keep going round after a soft job.”
Not bright or intense.
“soft lighting”
Having a slight angle from straight.
“At the intersection with two roads going left, take the soft left.”
“It's important to dance on soft knees to avoid injury.”
Voiced; sonant; lenis.
“DH represents the voiced (soft) th of English these clothes.”
Voiceless.
Palatalized.
Excessively empathetic or concerned about others’ wellbeing.
“He’s too soft for the ruthless world of finance.”
Lacking strength or resolve; not tough, wimpy.
“When it comes to drinking, he is as soft as they come.”
“‘Going soft on me, Jack?’ ‘You know I’m not.’ ‘Then why all the fuss and blow?’”
Low in dissolved calcium compounds.
“You won't need as much soap, as the water here is very soft.”
Foolish.
“He made soft fellows stark noddies, and such as were foolish quite mad.”
Of a ferromagnetic material; a material that becomes essentially non-magnetic when an external magnetic field is removed, a material with a low magnetic coercivity. (compare hard)
Physically or emotionally weak.
“see: snowflake and softie”
Effeminate.
“A longing after sensual pleasures is a dissolution of the spirit of a man, and makes it loose, soft, and wandering.”
Agreeable to the senses.
“a soft liniment”
“soft wines”
Agreeable generally; pleasant.
“And then there'll be the insurance people. And then a young man introducing himself as "The Press". I'll tell you what, sergeant, this being burgled isn't such a soft thing after all.”
Not harsh or offensive to the sight; not glaring or jagged; pleasing to the eye.
“soft colours”
“the soft outline of the snow-covered hill”
Made up of nonparallel rays, tending to wrap around a subject and produce diffuse shadows.
Incomplete, or temporary; not a full action.
“The admin imposed a soft ban on the user.”
“Messages removed by soft deletion can be recovered if necessary.”
Emulated with software; not physically real.
“Press the red button on the soft phone to hang up.”
Not likely to cause addiction.
Not containing alcohol.
Easy-going, lenient, not strict; permissive.
“soft on crime”
Of a market: having more supply than demand; being a buyer's market.
“Overall the rental market is soft and multifamily permit activity is almost nonexistent.”
Softcore
Mild, tame, moderate; far from intense or excluding harsh elements.
“soft humiliation play”
“soft raceplay”
Of paper: unsized.
Of silk: having the natural gum cleaned or washed off.
Of coal: bituminous, as opposed to anthracitic.
Of weather: warm enough to melt ice; thawing.
Attracted to or emotionally involved with someone.
Fake; counterfeit.
“All along, Nickle, I have tried to make you realise that this stroke was not to be a matter of planting a few soft fivers on racecourse bookies—I used to think that you had imagination. We intend to make notes of all the values and chiefly of the big ones.”

adv

Etymology: From Middle English softe, from Old English sōfte (“softly”), from Proto-West Germanic *samftō (“softly”).

Softly; without roughness or harshness; gently; quietly.
“A Knight soft ryding towards them they spyde”
“There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls.”

intj

Be quiet; hold; stop; not so fast.
“Soft you; a word or two before you goe: / I haue done the State ſome ſeruice, and they know’t: / No more of that.”
“But ſoft, what light through yonder window breaks?”

noun

A soft-headed or foolish person; an idiot.
“It'll do you no good to sit in a spring-cart o' your own, if you've got a soft to drive you: he'll soon turn you over into the ditch.”
A soft drink.
“Artois' story with water and softs was embodied in the difficult relationship between Raymond Boon and Spa's main owner and CEO, Guy du Bois.”
A tyre whose compound is softer than mediums, and harder than supersofts.
A soft sound or part of a sound.
“The expander doesn't really make the louds louder and the softs softer in one step […]”
A piece of software.
“Sega and third-party licensees are set to release an abundance of softs that range from intense shooters to sports to reflex-testers.”
Banknotes.
“At the end of the two years and a half I got into the way of forged Bank-of-England notes. A man I knew in the course of business, said, ‘I would cut that game of ‘smatter-hauling,’ (stealing handkerchiefs), and do a little soft,’ (pass bad notes).”
“Putting his mouth to my ear, he whispered hoarsely. "Do you want to buy any queer soft?" […] In my dream I had been haunted by a counterfeiter, vulgarly called "a smasher."”