soft

From Middle English softe (“soft, easy, gentle, yielding”), from Old English sōfte, alteration of earlier sēfte (“soft, gentle, easy, comfortable”), from Proto-Germanic *samftijaz (“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.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /sɔft/, enPR: sôft
• (cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA^(key): /sɑft/, enPR: sŏft
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sɒft/, enPR: sŏft
  • (Conservative RP) IPA^(key): /sɔːft/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒft

• Audio (US)

  (file)

soft (comparative softer, superlative softest)

1. Easily giving way under pressure.

   My head sank easily into the soft pillow.

2. (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

   • Bible, Matt. xi. 8

     They that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses.

3. (of a sound) Quiet.

   I could hear the soft rustle of the leaves in the trees.

   • Shakespeare

     Her voice was ever soft, / Gentle, and low, — an excellent thing in woman.

4. Gentle.

   There was a soft breeze blowing.

   • William Shakespeare

     I would to God my heart were flint, like Edward's; / Or Edward's soft and pitiful, like mine.

   • Tyndale

     The meek or soft shall inherit the earth.

5. Expressing gentleness or tenderness; mild; conciliatory; courteous; kind.

   soft eyes

   • Bible, Proverbs xv. 1

     A soft answer turneth away wrath.

   • William Wordsworth

     A face with gladness overspread, / Soft smiles, by human kindness bred.

6. Gentle in action or motion; easy.
   • John Milton

     On her soft axle, white she paces even, / And bears thee soft with the smooth air along.

7. Weak in character; impressible.
   • Glanvill

     The deceiver soon found this soft place of Adam's.

8. 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.

9. Not bright or intense.

   soft lighting

10. 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.

11. (linguistics) Voiced; sonant.
    • The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien

      DH represents the voiced (soft) th of English these clothes.

12. (linguistics, rare) voiceless
13. (linguistics, Slavic languages) palatalized
14. (slang) Lacking strength or resolve; not tough, wimpy.

    When it comes to drinking, he is as soft as they come.

15. (of water) Low in dissolved calcium compounds.

    You won't need as much soap, as the water here is very soft.

16. (Britain, colloquial) Foolish.
    • Burton

      He made soft fellows stark noddies, and such as were foolish quite mad.

17. (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)
18. (of a person) Physically or emotionally weak.
19. Incomplete, or temporary; not a full action.

    The admin imposed a soft block/ban on the user or a soft lock on the article.

20. (Britain, of a man) Effeminate.
    • Jeremy Taylor

      A longing after sensual pleasures is a dissolution of the spirit of a man, and makes it loose, soft, and wandering.

21. Agreeable to the senses.

    a soft liniment

    soft wines

    • Milton

      the soft, delicious air

22. 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

    • Sir Thomas Browne

      The sun, shining upon the upper part of the clouds […] made the softest lights imaginable.

• (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

• (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

• mollify

soft

1. (archaic) Be quiet; hold; stop; not so fast.
   • Shakespeare

     Soft, you; a word or two before you go.

     But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks?

soft (comparative more soft, superlative most soft)

1. (obsolete) Softly; without roughness or harshness; gently; quietly.
   • Edmund Spenser (c.1552–1599)

     A knight soft riding toward them.

   • 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter II, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, OCLC 7780546; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., 55 Fifth Avenue, [1933], OCLC 2666860, 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.

soft (plural softs)

1. A soft or foolish person; an idiot.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of George Eliot to this entry?)

2. (motorsports) Ellipsis of soft tyre (A tyre whose compound is softer than mediums, and harder than supersofts.)

Borrowed from English soft(ware).

soft m

1. (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?

• soft in Kartotéka Novočeského lexikálního archivu
• soft in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, 1960–1971, 1989

Borrowed from English soft.

• IPA^(key): /sɔft/

soft m (plural softs)

1. (sexuality) soft porn
2. (computing, uncountable) Software.
3. (computing, countable) A piece of software.

soft (plural softs)

1. softcore (pornography)

Borrowed from English soft.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɔft/[1]

soft (invariable)

1. soft (tone etc; temporary (computing))

Borrowed from English soft(ware).

soft m inan

1. (colloquial) software, program