soft
See also: -soft
EnglishEdit
PronunciationEdit
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: sŏft, IPA(key): /sɒft/
- (General American) enPR: sôft, IPA(key): /sɔft/
Audio (GA) (file) - (cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA(key): /sɑft/, enPR: sŏft
- (Southern American English, obsolete) enPR: săft, IPA(key): /sæft/[1]
- Rhymes: -ɒft
Etymology 1Edit
From Middle English softe, from Old English sōfte, alteration of earlier sēfte (“soft”), from Proto-West Germanic *samftī (“level, even, smooth, soft, gentle”) (compare *sōmiz (“agreeable, fitting”)), from Proto-Indo-European *semptio-, *semtio-, from *sem- (“one, whole”). Cognate with West Frisian sêft (“gentle; soft”), Dutch zacht (“soft”), German Low German sacht (“soft”), German sanft (“soft, yielding”), Old Norse sœmr (“agreeable, fitting”), samr (“same”). More at seem, same.
AdjectiveEdit
soft (comparative softer, superlative softest)
- Easily giving way under pressure.
- My head sank easily into the soft pillow.
- (of cloth or similar material) Smooth and flexible; not rough, rugged, or harsh.
- Polish the silver with a soft cloth to avoid scratching.
- soft silk; a soft skin
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 11:8:
- They that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses.
- (of a sound) Quiet.
- I could hear the soft rustle of the leaves in the trees.
- c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:
- Her voice was ever soft, / Gentle, and low, — an excellent thing in woman.
- Gentle.
- There was a soft breeze blowing.
- c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:
- I would to God my heart were flint, like Edward's; / Or Edward's soft and pitiful, like mine.
- c. 1533, William Tyndale, An exposicion upon of Mathew
- The meek or soft shall inherit the earth.
- Expressing gentleness or tenderness; mild; conciliatory; courteous; kind.
- soft eyes
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 15:1:
- A soft answer turneth away wrath.
- 1815, William Wordsworth, To a Highland Girl
- A face with gladness overspread, / Soft smiles, by human kindness bred.
- Gentle in action or motion; easy.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
- On her soft axle, white she paces even, / And bears thee soft with the smooth air along.
- Weak in character; impressible.
- 1665, Joseph Glanvill, Scepsis Scientifica:
- The deceiver soon found this soft place of Adam's.
- Requiring little or no effort; easy.
- 1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Beach of Falesá
- Before that they had been a good deal on the move, trekking about after the white man, who was one of those rolling stones that keep going round after a soft job.
- 1892, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Beach of Falesá
- Not bright or intense.
- soft lighting
- Having a slight angle from straight.
- At the intersection with two roads going left, take the soft left.
- It's important to dance on soft knees to avoid injury.
- (phonetics) Voiced; sonant; lenis.
- 1954, J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
- DH represents the voiced (soft) th of English these clothes.
- 1954, J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
- (phonetics, rare) Voiceless.
- (Slavic phonology) Palatalized.
- (slang) Lacking strength or resolve; not tough, wimpy.
- 1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 31:
- ‘Going soft on me, Jack?’ ‘You know I’m not.’ ‘Then why all the fuss and blow?’
- 2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Prison Ship Purgatory:
- Warden Kuril: Every day I see the worst sapient life has to offer. Governments are soft, unwilling to make the hard choices.
Warden Kuril: Someone had to stand up and make the galaxy safe.
- When it comes to drinking, he is as soft as they come.
- (of water) Low in dissolved calcium compounds.
- You won't need as much soap, as the water here is very soft.
- (UK, colloquial) Foolish.
- 1621, Robert Burton, The Essential Anatomy of Melancholy
- He made soft fellows stark noddies, and such as were foolish quite mad.
- 1621, Robert Burton, The Essential Anatomy of Melancholy
- (physics) Of a ferromagnetic material; a material that becomes essentially non-magnetic when an external magnetic field is removed, a material with a low magnetic coercivity. (compare hard)
- (of a person) Physically or emotionally weak.
- Incomplete, or temporary; not a full action.
- The admin imposed a soft ban on the user.
- Messages removed by soft deletion can be recovered if necessary.
- (UK, of a man) Effeminate.
- 1650, Jeremy Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living
- A longing after sensual pleasures is a dissolution of the spirit of a man, and makes it loose, soft, and wandering.
- 1650, Jeremy Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living
- Agreeable to the senses.
- a soft liniment
- soft wines
- 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
- the soft, delicious air
- Not harsh or offensive to the sight; not glaring or jagged; pleasing to the eye.
- soft colours
- the soft outline of the snow-covered hill
- 1673, Edward Browne, A Brief Account of some Travels in Hungaria, Styria, Bulgaria, Thessaly, Austria, Serbia, Carynthia, Carniola, and Friuli
- The sun, shining upon the upper part of the clouds […] made the softest lights imaginable.
- (photography, of light) Made up of nonparallel rays, tending to wrap around a subject and produce diffuse shadows.
- (computing) Emulated with software; not physically real.
- Press the red button on the soft phone to hang up.
- (of a drug) Not likely to cause addiction.
- (of a drink) Not containing alcohol.
- (finance) Of a market: having more supply than demand; being a buyer's market.
- Antonym: hard
- 1995, U.S. Housing Market Conditions (page 45)
- Overall the rental market is soft and multifamily permit activity is almost nonexistent.
- (of pornography) softcore.
SynonymsEdit
- (giving way under pressure): see Thesaurus:soft
- (of a cloth): non-abrasive, fluffy
- (gentle): gentle, light, nesh
- (of a sound): quiet
- (lacking strength or resolve): meek, mild, wimpy, nesh
- (foolish): daft, foolish, silly, stupid
AntonymsEdit
- (giving way under pressure): hard, resistant, solid, stony
- (of a cloth): abrasive, scratchy
- (gentle): harsh, rough, strong
- (acute): hard
- (of a sound): loud
- (lacking strength or resolve): firm, strict, tough
- (of water): hard
- (foolish): sensible
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
giving way under pressure
|
of a cloth
|
gentle
|
of a sound
|
lacking strength or resolve
of water
foolish — see foolish
See alsoEdit
InterjectionEdit
soft
- (archaic) Be quiet; hold; stop; not so fast.
- c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:
- Soft, you; a word or two before you go.
But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
NounEdit
soft (plural softs)
- A soft or foolish person; an idiot.
- 1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter 9, in Adam Bede […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book first:
- It'll do you no good to sit in a spring-cart o' your own, if you've got a soft to drive you: he'll soon turn you over into the ditch.
- (motorsports) Ellipsis of soft tyre. (A tyre whose compound is softer than mediums, and harder than supersofts.)
- (colloquial) A soft sound or part of a sound.
- 2012, Sam McGuire, Paul Lee, The Video Editor's Guide to Soundtrack Pro (page 103)
- The expander doesn't really make the louds louder and the softs softer in one step […]
- 2012, Sam McGuire, Paul Lee, The Video Editor's Guide to Soundtrack Pro (page 103)
- (gaming, dated) Video game
- December 1989, Electronic Gaming Monthly:
- Sega and third-party licensees are set to release an abundance of softs that range from intense shooters to sports to reflex-testers.
- December 1989, Electronic Gaming Monthly:
Etymology 2Edit
From Middle English softe, from Old English sōfte (“softly”), from Proto-West Germanic *samftō (“softly”).
AdverbEdit
soft (comparative more soft, superlative most soft)
- (obsolete) Softly; without roughness or harshness; gently; quietly.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 9:
- A Knight soft ryding towards them they spyde
- 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter II, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, page 0091:
- There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock-paper on the walls.
ReferencesEdit
- ^ Stanley, Oma (1937), “I. Vowel Sounds in Stressed Syllables”, in The Speech of East Texas (American Speech: Reprints and Monographs; 2), New York: Columbia University Press, , →ISBN, § 8, page 22.
CzechEdit
EtymologyEdit
Borrowed from English soft(ware).
NounEdit
soft m
- (colloquial) software, program
- 18 March 1999, CD-R 74min X 80min, Group cz.comp.ibmpc:
- Zajimalo by mne, zda jsou tyto CD schopna pracovat na plnou kapacitu s normalnimi vypalovackami a beznym softem nebo je na ne potreba mit extra vypalovadlo i soft?
- 19 March 2009, Zalohovaci SW, Group cz.talk:
- Pokud těch dat máte víc, pak tím TARem stačí zálohovat základ systému a zbytek řešit zálohovacím softem, kterej umí dělit archiv na několik pásek.
- 2 April 2010, gsm modul / telefon, Group cz.comp.linux:
- ma nekdo nejake zkusenosti s takovym zarizenim ci softem kterym to ovladat?
- 18 March 1999, CD-R 74min X 80min, Group cz.comp.ibmpc:
DeclensionEdit
Declension of soft
Further readingEdit
FrenchEdit
EtymologyEdit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
soft m (plural softs)
AdjectiveEdit
soft (plural softs)
- softcore (pornography)
ItalianEdit
EtymologyEdit
Unadapted borrowing from English soft.
PronunciationEdit
AdjectiveEdit
soft (invariable)
- soft (tone etc.; temporary (computing))
ReferencesEdit
- ^ soft in Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)
RomanianEdit
EtymologyEdit
Borrowed from English software.
NounEdit
soft n (plural softuri)
DeclensionEdit
Declension of soft
| singular | plural | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| indefinite articulation | definite articulation | indefinite articulation | definite articulation | |
| nominative/accusative | (un) soft | softul | (niște) softuri | softurile |
| genitive/dative | (unui) soft | softului | (unor) softuri | softurilor |
| vocative | softule | softurilor | ||
SwedishEdit
EtymologyEdit
AdjectiveEdit
soft (comparative softare, superlative softast)
- (slang) nice and/or laid-back; chill
- en soft snubbe
- a chill guy
- Det ska bli riktigt soft med några dagar ledigt
- It's gonna be real chill to have a few days off
- Soft att du klarade provet!
- Nice that you passed the test!
- Antonym: osoft
DeclensionEdit
| Inflection of soft | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Indefinite | Positive | Comparative | Superlative2 |
| Common singular | soft | softare | softast |
| Neuter singular | soft | softare | softast |
| Plural | softa | softare | softast |
| Masculine plural3 | softe | softare | softast |
| Definite | Positive | Comparative | Superlative |
| Masculine singular1 | softe | softare | softaste |
| All | softa | softare | softaste |
| 1) Only used, optionally, to refer to things whose natural gender is masculine. 2) The indefinite superlative forms are only used in the predicative. 3) Dated or archaic | |||