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soft
[ sawft, soft ]
adjective
- yielding readily to touch or pressure; easily penetrated, divided, or changed in shape; not hard or stiff:
a soft pillow.
- relatively deficient in hardness, as metal or wood.
- smooth and agreeable to the touch; not rough or coarse:
a soft fabric;
soft skin.
- producing agreeable sensations; pleasant or comfortable:
soft slumber.
- low or subdued in sound; gentle and melodious:
soft music;
a soft voice.
Synonyms: sweet, dulcet, mellifluous
- not harsh or unpleasant to the eye; not glaring:
soft light;
a soft color.
- not hard or sharp:
soft outlines.
- gentle or mild:
soft breezes.
- genial or balmy, as climate or air.
- gentle, mild, warm-hearted, or compassionate:
a soft, grandmotherly woman.
Synonyms: sympathetic, tender
- smooth, soothing, or ingratiating:
soft words.
- not harsh or severe, as a penalty or demand.
- responsive or sympathetic to the feelings, emotions, needs, etc., of others; tender-hearted.
- sentimental or flowery, as language:
soft, meaningless talk.
- not strong or robust; delicate; incapable of great endurance or exertion:
He was too soft for the Marines.
- Informal. easy; involving little effort; not difficult, laborious, trying, or severe:
a soft job.
- Informal. easily influenced or swayed; easily imposed upon; impressionable.
Synonyms: submissive, irresolute, compliant
- lenient, permissive, or conciliatory, especially regarding something that is conceived of as dangerous or threatening:
to be soft on Communism.
- (of water) relatively free from mineral salts that interfere with the action of soap.
- (of paper money or a monetary system) not supported by sufficient gold reserves or not easily convertible into a foreign currency.
- (of a market, market condition, or prices) declining in value, volume, profitability, etc.; weak: Compare firm 1( def 7 ).
a soft tourist season.
- (of money) plentiful or available at low interest rates or on easy terms:
a soft loan.
- Metallurgy.
- (of a metal) easily magnetized and demagnetized.
- (of solder) fusing readily.
- (of a metal or alloy) fully annealed, so as to provide minimum mechanical hardness.
- Photography.
- (of a photographic image) having delicate gradations of tone.
- (of a focus) lacking in sharpness.
- (of a lens) unable to be focused sharply.
- Phonetics.
- (of consonants) lenis, especially lenis and voiced.
- (of c and g ) pronounced as in cent and gem.
- (of consonants in Slavic languages) palatalized. Compare hard ( def 38 ).
- Military. (of a missile-launching base) aboveground and relatively unprotected from enemy attack.
- Aerospace. (of a landing of a space vehicle) gentle; not harmful to the vehicle or its contents:
a soft landing on the moon.
- Physics. (of a beam of particles or electromagnetic radiation ) having relatively low energy: Compare hard ( def 40 ).
soft x-rays.
- (of a delegate, voter, etc.) not committed to any one candidate.
- Informal. foolish or stupid:
soft in the head.
- (of a detergent) readily biodegradable.
- Baseball. lacking power or speed:
a soft infield hit; a soft breaking pitch.
noun
- something that is soft or yielding; the soft part.
- softness.
adverb
- in a soft manner.
interjection
- be quiet! hush!
- not so fast! stop!
soft
/ sɒft /
adjective
- easy to dent, work, or cut without shattering; malleable
- not hard; giving little or no resistance to pressure or weight
- fine, light, smooth, or fluffy to the touch
- gentle; tranquil
- (of music, sounds, etc) low and pleasing
- (of light, colour, etc) not excessively bright or harsh
- (of a breeze, climate, etc) temperate, mild, or pleasant
- dialect.drizzly or rainy
a soft day
the weather has turned soft
- slightly blurred; not sharply outlined
soft focus
- (of a diet) consisting of easily digestible foods
- kind or lenient, often excessively so
- easy to influence or impose upon
- prepared to compromise; not doctrinaire
the soft left
- informal.feeble or silly; simple (often in the phrase soft in the head )
- unable to endure hardship, esp through too much pampering
- physically out of condition; flabby
soft muscles
- loving; tender
soft words
- informal.requiring little exertion; easy
a soft job
- chem (of water) relatively free of mineral salts and therefore easily able to make soap lather
- (of a drug such as cannabis) nonaddictive or only mildly addictive Compare hard
- (of news coverage) concentrating on trivial stories or those with human interest
- phonetics
- an older word for lenis
- (not in technical usage) denoting the consonants c and g in English when they are pronounced as palatal or alveolar fricatives or affricates (s, / dʒ /, / ʃ /, / ð /, / tʃ /) before e and i, rather than as velar stops (k, g)
- (in the Slavonic languages) palatalized before a front vowel or a special character ( soft sign ) written as
- unprotected against attack
a soft target
- military unarmoured, esp as applied to a truck by comparison with a tank
- finance (of prices, a market, etc) unstable and tending to decline
- (of a currency) in relatively little demand, esp because of a weak balance of payments situation
- (of radiation, such as X-rays and ultraviolet radiation) having low energy and not capable of deep penetration of materials
- physics (of valves or tubes) only partially evacuated
- related to the performance of non-specific, undefinable tasks
soft skills such as customer services and office support
- soft on or soft about
- gentle, sympathetic, or lenient towards
- feeling affection or infatuation for
adverb
- in a soft manner
to speak soft
noun
- a soft object, part, or piece
- informal.See softie
interjection
- quiet!
- wait!
Derived Forms
- ˈsoftly, adverb
Other Words From
- soft·ly adverb
- soft·ness noun
- o·ver·soft adjective
- su·per·soft adjective
- ul·tra·soft adjective
- un·soft adjective
- un·soft·ly adverb
Word History and Origins
Origin of soft1
Word History and Origins
Origin of soft1
Idioms and Phrases
- be soft on someone, Informal. to be amorously inclined toward a person; have an affection for:
He's been soft on her for years.
More idioms and phrases containing soft
- hard (soft) sell
Example Sentences
Post-mortem tests failed to ascertain the cause of Abiyah's death because tests on soft tissue, which had decomposed, could not be carried out.
There is no official data on the number of young “soft girls” quitting work altogether and living off their partners like Ms Larsson, and Ms Göransson says it is likely to be a small proportion.
A team of researchers has beaten its own record for the fastest swimming soft robot, drawing inspiration from manta rays to improve their ability to control the robot's movement in the water.
She’s drawn and dark, where Mrs. Reed is blonde and rosy-cheeked; where Mrs. Reed is soft and maternal — she insists on the “Mrs.”
The surface is made receptive to the delicate movements of soft graphite across the page.
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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.
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