soft
(sôft, sŏft)
[Middle English, pleasant, calm, from Old English sōfte.]
adjective: soft·er, soft·est.
- Easily molded, cut, or worked.
- Yielding readily to pressure or weight.
- Out of condition; flabby.
- Smooth or fine to the touch: a soft fabric.
- Not loud, harsh, or irritating: a soft voice.
- Not brilliant or glaring; subdued: soft colors.
- Not sharply drawn or delineated: soft charcoal shading; a scene filmed in soft focus.
- Mild; balmy: a soft breeze.
- Of a gentle disposition; tender.
- Affectionate: a soft glance.
- Attracted or emotionally involved: He has been soft on her for years.
- Not stern; lenient.
- Lacking strength of character; weak.
- Informal Simple-minded; foolish.
- Informal Easy: a soft job.
- Based on conciliation or negotiation rather than on threats or power plays: took a soft line toward their opponents.
- Gradually declining in trend; not firm: a soft economy; a soft computer market.
- Informal and entertaining without confronting difficult issues or hard facts: limited the discussion to soft topics.
- Using or based on data that is not readily quantifiable or amenable to experimental verification or refutation: The lawyer downplayed the soft evidence.
- Softcore.
- Being a turn in a specific direction at an angle less acute than other possible routes: a soft right.
- Of or relating to a paper currency as distinct from a hard currency backed by gold.
- Having low dissolved mineral content.
- Having a low or lower power of penetration: soft x-rays.
- Linguistics
- Sibilant rather than guttural, as c in certain and g in gem.
- Voiced and weakly articulated: a soft consonant.
- Palatalized, as certain consonants in Slavic languages.
- Unprotected against or vulnerable to attack: a soft target.
noun
- A soft object or part.
adverb
- In a soft manner; gently.
derivatives
- soft́ly
- adverb
- soft́ness
- noun
