softball

noun

Etymology: 1926: soft + ball. Compare hardball.

1. A game similar to baseball but played with a larger and softer ball which can be thrown overhand or underhand.

   “This will give you someone with whom you can trade softball complaints, which any veteran game-goer will tell you is the key to a good time.”

2. The ball used to play the sport.
3. A question designed to be easy to answer.

   “a softball interview”

   “Each man got his share of softballs on Friday night. But for 90 minutes in a dressed-up basketball arena at Washington University, the two candidates were also forced to address the kind of questions they get rarely if ever on the campaign trail: from voters who doubted them and maybe did not even like them very much.”