softhearted
Britishadjective
Other Word Forms
Explanation
If you're softhearted, you're extremely caring and considerate—maybe even a little too much. Softhearted people generally make better kindergarten teachers than professional boxers. A softhearted car salesperson might give a discount to a buyer who doesn't have much money, and a softhearted teacher may give you an extra day to finish your project if you're feeling overworked in your other classes. The opposite of softhearted is hardhearted or heartless. A hardhearted person might walk right past a lost, crying child, while a softhearted person will probably stop and try to help.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Rather, as with her other novels, there’s a softhearted universalism to Lalami’s treatment of surveillance capitalism.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 27, 2025
And when those thoughts sometimes become softhearted mea culpas, florists get the call.
From New York Times • Feb. 17, 2021
I'm not being softhearted or I'm not trying to be anything.
From Salon • Nov. 19, 2020
Weak but wealthy, smart but softhearted, Tyrion’s ever-variable status was a microcosm of the instability of the Seven Kingdoms.
From Slate • Apr. 11, 2019
When I woke up and staggered into our bedroom, Margot, normally the more softhearted of the two of us, would look at me skeptically.
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
