soft
Part of speech: adj
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: arts
business
computing
engineering
finance
hobbies
human-sciences
lifestyle
linguistics
mathematics
motor-racing
natural-sciences
phonetics
phonology
photography
physical-sciences
physics
racing
sciences
sports
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.
Inflected forms:
form: softer
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: softest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: softs
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: Easily giving way under pressure.
pos: adj
examples: 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.
[…] Category Two implement hitches and doubled high-traction agricultural tires hung four to each massive rear axle to breast the steepest, softest dune or guckiest swamp […]
gloss: Smooth and flexible; not rough, rugged, or harsh.
pos: adj
examples: Polish the silver with a soft cloth to avoid scratching.
soft silk; a soft skin
They that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses.
gloss: Quiet.
pos: adj
examples: 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.
gloss: Gentle.
pos: adj
examples: 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.
The meek or soft shall inherit the earth.
gloss: Expressing gentleness or tenderness; mild; conciliatory; courteous; kind.
pos: adj
examples: soft eyes
A soft answer turneth away wrath.
A face with gladness overspread, / Soft smiles, by human kindness bred.
gloss: Gentle in action or motion; easy.
pos: adj
examples: On her soft axle, white she paces even, / And bears thee soft with the smooth air along.
gloss: Limp, weak.
pos: adj
gloss: Weak in character; impressible.
pos: adj
examples: The deceiver soon found this soft place of Adam's.
gloss: Requiring little or no effort; easy.
pos: adj
examples: 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.
gloss: Not bright or intense.
pos: adj
examples: soft lighting
gloss: Having a slight angle from straight.
pos: adj
examples: At the intersection with two roads going left, take the soft left.
It's important to dance on soft knees to avoid injury.
gloss: Voiced; sonant; lenis.
pos: adj
examples: DH represents the voiced (soft) th of English these clothes.
gloss: Voiceless.
pos: adj
tags: rare
gloss: Palatalized.
pos: adj
gloss: Excessively empathetic or concerned about others’ wellbeing.
pos: adj
tags: slang
examples: He’s too soft for the ruthless world of finance.
gloss: Lacking strength or resolve; not tough, wimpy.
pos: adj
tags: slang
examples: 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?’
Warden Kuril: Every day I see the worst sapient life has to offer. Governments are soft, unwilling to make the hard choices.
Warden Kuril: Someone had to stand up and make the galaxy safe.
gloss: Low in dissolved calcium compounds.
pos: adj
examples: You won't need as much soap, as the water here is very soft.
gloss: Foolish.
pos: adj
tags: UK
colloquial
examples: He made soft fellows stark noddies, and such as were foolish quite mad.
gloss: 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)
pos: adj
gloss: Physically or emotionally weak.
pos: adj
examples: see: snowflake and softie
gloss: Effeminate.
pos: adj
tags: UK
examples: A longing after sensual pleasures is a dissolution of the spirit of a man, and makes it loose, soft, and wandering.
gloss: Agreeable to the senses.
pos: adj
examples: a soft liniment
soft wines
the soft, delicious air
gloss: Agreeable generally; pleasant.
pos: adj
tags: UK
dated
slang
examples: 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.
gloss: Not harsh or offensive to the sight; not glaring or jagged; pleasing to the eye.
pos: adj
examples: soft colours
the soft outline of the snow-covered hill
The sun, shining upon the upper part of the clouds […] made the softest lights imaginable.
gloss: Made up of nonparallel rays, tending to wrap around a subject and produce diffuse shadows.
pos: adj
gloss: Incomplete, or temporary; not a full action.
pos: adj
examples: The admin imposed a soft ban on the user.
Messages removed by soft deletion can be recovered if necessary.
gloss: Emulated with software; not physically real.
pos: adj
examples: Press the red button on the soft phone to hang up.
gloss: Not likely to cause addiction.
pos: adj
gloss: Not containing alcohol.
pos: adj
gloss: Easy-going, lenient, not strict; permissive.
pos: adj
examples: soft on crime
gloss: Of a market: having more supply than demand; being a buyer's market.
pos: adj
examples: Overall the rental market is soft and multifamily permit activity is almost nonexistent.
gloss: Softcore
pos: adj
gloss: Mild, tame, moderate; far from intense or excluding harsh elements.
pos: adj
examples: soft humiliation play
soft raceplay
soft vore
gloss: Of paper: unsized.
pos: adj
gloss: Of silk: having the natural gum cleaned or washed off.
pos: adj
gloss: Of coal: bituminous, as opposed to anthracitic.
pos: adj
gloss: Of weather: warm enough to melt ice; thawing.
pos: adj
gloss: Attracted to or emotionally involved with someone.
pos: adj
tags: idiomatic
informal
gloss: Fake; counterfeit.
pos: adj
tags: UK
slang
examples: 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.
gloss: A soft-headed or foolish person; an idiot.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
countable
examples: 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.
gloss: A soft drink.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: 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.
gloss: A tyre whose compound is softer than mediums, and harder than supersofts.
pos: noun
tags: countable
gloss: A soft sound or part of a sound.
pos: noun
tags: colloquial
countable
examples: The expander doesn't really make the louds louder and the softs softer in one step […]
gloss: A piece of software.
pos: noun
tags: countable
dated
nonstandard
rare
examples: Sega and third-party licensees are set to release an abundance of softs that range from intense shooters to sports to reflex-testers.
gloss: Banknotes.
pos: noun
tags: UK
obsolete
slang
uncountable
examples: 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."
Synonyms: cushiony
flabby
flaccid
flexible
soft
spongy
mellow
malleable
moldable
pliable
tender
yielding
zate
Antonyms: firm
hard
resistant
solid
stony
unyielding
Related words: mollify
Derived words: airsoft
failsoft
hypersoft
mallsoft
nonsoft
oversoft
semisoft
Softail
softback
softbacked
softball
softbill
softbilled
softboard
softbottom
softbound
softbox
softboy
softcoat
softcock
softcode
softcover
softcovered
soften
softgel
softgoods
softhead
softheaded
softhearted
softie
softish
softleaf
softline
softling
softlock
softly
softmask
softmaxx
softness
softnose
softpaste
soft ping
softplay
softplus
soft release
softroader
softscape
softshell
softship
softsub
softtail
softwall
software
softwater
softwear
softwood
softy
stroft
ultrasoft
unsoft
a good conscience is a soft pillow
brown soft scale
fail-soft
go soft
jacketed soft point
semi-soft
silky soft
soft 404
soft a
soft as a baby's bottom
soft as silk
soft atheism
soft atheist
soft begging
soft bigotry of low expectations
soft-block
soft boiled
soft-boiled
soft bomb
soft boxing
soft boy
soft break
soft Brexit
soft-brick
soft butch
soft-cancel
soft canon
soft capping
soft chancre
soft cheese
soft-close
soft coal
soft copy
soft coral
soft-core
soft corner
soft count
soft coup
soft-delete
soft deletion
soft determinism
soft determinist
soft dollars
soft-dotted
soft drink
soft drug
soft elm
soft error
soft flimsy
soft float
soft focus
soft fork
soft fox sedge
soft fruit
soft funding
soft g
soft-gamma repeater
soft girl
soft goods
soft-grain
soft grunge
soft hand
soft-handed
soft handed
soft hands
soft-headed
soft-hearted
soft-heartedly
soft-heartedness
soft hyphen
soft inquiry
soft in the head
soft jade
soft key
soft kill
soft land
soft-land
soft landing
soft launch
soft-launch
soft-liner
soft link
soft lithography
soft loan
soft luxury
soft maple
soft market
soft matte
soft media
soft Mick
soft-minded
soft-mindedly
soft-mindedness
soft mode
soft money
soft mutation
soft navigation
soft news
soft-nosed
soft-nose
soft nose
soft-on
soft on
soft opening
soft ordnance
soft palate
soft paraffin
soft paste
soft-paste
soft paywall
soft-pedal
soft pedal
soft peddle
soft photon
soft pine
soft play
soft-point
soft point
soft power
soft pull
soft real-time
soft reboot
soft redirect
soft reference
soft reset
soft return
soft robot
soft robotics
soft rock
soft roe
soft room
soft rot
soft rush
soft-sawder
soft sawder
soft scale
soft science
soft science fiction
soft sculpture
soft-sectored
soft sectoring
soft sell
soft serve
soft served
soft-served
soft-shell crab
soft-shelled crab
soft-shelled turtle
soft-shell turtle
soft-shoe
soft shoe
soft shoulder
soft sign
soft signal
soft skill
soft snap
soft soap
soft-soap
soft-spoken
soft spot
soft steel
softstem bulrush
soft-sub
soft sub
soft surfboard
soft swap
soft tack
soft target
soft tennis
soft thing
soft tick
soft tissue
soft tommy
soft top
soft tortoise
soft touch
soft toy
soft underbelly
soft-verge
soft water
soft wheat
soft X-ray
Translations:
lang: Bulgarian
word: тих
roman: tih
lang: Dutch
word: zacht
lang: Dutch
word: stil
lang: Esperanto
word: milda
lang: Finnish
word: vaimea
lang: German
word: leise
lang: Hawaiian
word: polinahe
lang: Hungarian
word: halk
lang: Hungarian
word: csendes
lang: Irish
word: séimh
lang: Italian
word: dolce
lang: Central Kurdish
word: نەرم
roman: nerm
lang: Central Kurdish
word: ھێمن
roman: hêmin
lang: Latvian
word: mīksts
lang: Māori
word: riki
lang: Māori
word: ririki
lang: Māori
word: mārire
lang: Norwegian
word: myk
lang: Polish
word: cichy
lang: Portuguese
word: suave
lang: Romanian
word: încet
lang: Russian
word: ти́хий
roman: tíxij
lang: Scottish Gaelic
word: mìn
lang: Scottish Gaelic
word: binn
lang: Spanish
word: tenue
lang: Vietnamese
word: khẽ
lang: Vietnamese
word: khẽ khàng