Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Yielding readily to pressure or weight.
- adjective Easily molded, cut, or worked.
- adjective Sports Not tense and therefore capable of absorbing the impact of a ball or puck and of catching, receiving, or controlling it.
- adjective Out of condition; flabby.
- adjective Smooth or fine to the touch.
- adjective Not loud, harsh, or irritating.
- adjective Not brilliant or glaring; subdued.
- adjective Not sharply drawn or delineated.
- adjective Mild; balmy.
- adjective Tender or affectionate.
- adjective Attracted or emotionally involved.
- adjective Not stern; lenient.
- adjective Lacking strength of character; weak.
- adjective Informal Simple-minded or foolish.
- adjective Not demanding or difficult; easy.
- adjective Based on conciliation or compromise.
- adjective Gradually declining in trend; not firm.
- adjective Sports Scored on a shot that the goalie should have blocked.
- adjective Informal and entertaining without confronting difficult issues or hard facts.
- adjective Using or based on data that is not readily quantifiable or amenable to experimental verification or refutation.
- adjective Softcore.
- adjective Being a turn in a specific direction at an angle less acute than other possible routes.
- adjective Of or relating to a paper currency as distinct from a hard currency backed by gold.
- adjective Having low dissolved mineral content.
- adjective Nonalcoholic.
- adjective Nonaddictive or mildly addictive. Used of certain drugs.
- adjective Having a low or lower power of penetration.
- adjective Sibilant rather than guttural, as c in certain and g in gem.
- adjective Voiced and weakly articulated.
- adjective Palatalized, as certain consonants in Slavic languages.
- adjective Unprotected against or vulnerable to attack.
- adverb In a soft manner; gently.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To soften; make soft.
- Go softly! hold! stop! not so fast!
- In archery, smooth and even in flexure and recoil: said of a bow.
- noun plural Rags of loosely woven or knitted goods, such as flannel, hosiery, etc.
- Softly; gently; quietly.
- Yielding readily to pressure; easily penetrated; impressible; yielding: opposed to hard: as, a soft bed; a soft apple; soft earth; soft wood; a soft mineral; easily susceptible of change of form; hence, easily worked; malleable: as, soft iron; lead is softer than gold.
- Affecting the senses in a mild, smooth, bland, delicate, or agreeable manner.
- Mild and agreeable; gentle; genial; kindly.
- Smooth; flowing; not rough or vehement; not harsh; gentle or melodious to the ear: as, a soft sound; soft accents; soft whispers.
- Not harsh or offensive to the sight; mild to the eye; not strong or glaring; not exciting by intensity of color or violent contrast: as, soft colors; the soft coloring of a picture.
- Bituminous, as opposed to anthracitic: said of coal.
- Nearly free from lime or magnesia salts, and therefore forming a lather with soap without leaving a curd-like deposit: said of water.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Mine turned out soft and well..soft of, bend-able, if that makes any sense?
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Each of these varieties may be had in two grades, according to the negative in hand or the effect desired in the print, viz.: _hard_, for use with soft negatives where we desire to get vigor or contrast in the print, and _soft_, for use with hard negatives where softness of effect is desired in the print.
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Miss Wynter puts that glance behind her, and perhaps there is something -- something a little dangerous in the soft, _soft_ look she now turns upon him.
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The extreme limit of soft tone is very effective in both choral and orchestral music, and most conductors seem to have no adequate notion of _how soft_ the tone may be made in such passages.
Essentials in Conducting Karl Wilson Gehrkens 1928
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The ground was very soft here; the men were cutting through _soft_ granite!
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The organs of speech are the lungs and bronchial tubes; the throat, particularly that part of it which is known as the larynx or, in popular parlance, the Adams apple; the nose; the uvula, which is the soft, pointed, and easily movable organ that depends from the rear of the palate; the palate, which is divided into a posterior, movable soft palate or velum and a hard palate; the tongue; the teeth; and the lips.
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With each stroke of her hair, her lids grew heavier, her expression soft and sleepy, until she finally drifted off.
Kresley Cole Immortals After Dark: The Clan MacRieve Kresley Cole 2010
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The term soft power was coined by Joseph Nye, a professor at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and a former official at the State and Defense departments.
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Besides, Bush was not going to be impressed by any bumper sticker with the word soft in it, especially since, according to the polls, he had considerable support where it really mattered—among the American people.
The Great Experiment Strobe Talbott 2008
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In an interview published Saturday in Le Parisien newspaper, Aubry said the phrase "soft with the weak, and hard on the powerful" was one that fits her well.
SFGate: Don Asmussen: Bad Reporter By JAMEY KEATEN 2011
ruzuzu commented on the word soft
"Go softly! hold! stop! not so fast!"
-- from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
December 22, 2015
bilby commented on the word soft
Moist.
December 23, 2015
qms commented on the word soft
"But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks?" Romeo and Juliet, II, 2.
December 23, 2015