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.
Later, Britney wept, and softhearted, hardboiled Hollywood Nate soothed her: “Even gunfighters have to cry sometimes,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 28, 2025
“Indeed, we are all softhearted when we see your innocent expression, but that does not mean that we want to become playthings whom you can deceive!” she wrote in a post on Weibo.
From New York Times ● Jul. 20, 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
I could not believe how gentle and softhearted he could be.
From "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd
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.
