soft option

British

noun

in a number of choices, the one considered to be easy or the easiest to do, involving the least difficulty or exertion

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

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soft option

“The verdict of manslaughter therefore is not a soft option and doesn’t amount to saying that what he didn’t wasn’t all that bad, or that he deserves sympathy and understanding,” Owen implored the jury.

From Time ● Nov. 4, 2016

Mr Grayling is wrong to label cautions a soft option, argues John Graham of the Police Foundation, a think tank.

From Economist ● Nov. 6, 2014

He was never afraid to take risks with his work and he was dismissive of those who went for the soft option.

From BBC ● Dec. 15, 2013

If you think prisons are a soft option, imagine the furore if that were to happen now.

From The Guardian ● Apr. 13, 2013

It is far too easy, and would merely have become a "soft option" and a refuge for the destitute.

From International Language Past, Present and Future: With Specimens of Esperanto and Grammar by Walter John Clark

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023