softball

[sawft-bawl, soft-]

noun

a form of baseball played on a smaller diamond with a ball that is larger and softer than a baseball.

the ball itself.

something that can be easily dealt with: The confirmation committee threw her a softball on that question.

Origin of softball

First recorded in 1925–30; soft + ball¹

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for softball

Contemporary Examples of softball

Morning talk shows should be a doddle for a President: softball questions easily answered with a platitude or three.
‘Michelle Will Not Run For Office’: Obama's Daytime TV Confessional
Lloyd Grove
May 30, 2014
Erick was in the kitchen with the girls, getting ready to leave for his softball game.
The Cost: What Stop and Frisk Does to a Young Man’s Soul
Rilla Askew
May 21, 2014
Ann is a pleasant brunette, a former class officer, yearbook editor, and member of the softball team at Dryden High.
The Stacks: The Searing Story of How Murder Stalked a Tiny New York Town
E. Jean Carroll
April 19, 2014
By 14, he was a bartender whose heroes were the softball players who raced into the bar for a beer between innings.
The Stacks: John Schulian’s Classic Profile of Newspaper Columnist Mike Royko
John Schulian
January 5, 2014
He wasn't quite sure how he'd be spending his summer, but he was thinking of volunteering for a softball league.
From PTSD to Prison: Why Veterans Become Criminals
Matthew Wolfe
July 28, 2013

Historical Examples of softball

Well, 'bout de biggest things us played when I was a chap was baseball, softball, and marbles.
Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves
Work Projects Administration
Ang búla sa bisbul gulam kay sa búla sa supbul, The ball used for baseball is slightly smaller than the ball for softball.
A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan
John U. Wolff
She looked around, but no one was paying any attention, they were all watching the softball game.
The Circuit Riders
R. C. FitzPatrick
The level area between the creek and the road was large enough so we could have softball games and park cars there.
The Biography of a Rabbit
Roy Benson
It is amazing that it only took us two days and there was room enough for a football field and two softball diamonds.
The Biography of a Rabbit
Roy Benson

British Dictionary definitions for softball

softball

noun

a variation of baseball using a larger softer ball, pitched underhand

the ball used

cookery the stage in the boiling of a sugar syrup at which it may be rubbed into balls after dipping in cold water

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

Word Origin and History for softball

baseball of larger than usual size, used in a scaled-down version of the game, 1914, from soft + ball (n.1). The game itself so called from 1926, earlier known as playground baseball. The word earlier was a term in sugar candy making (1894). Softball question, one that is easy to answer, is attested from 1976.