Definition of "soft"

soft¹

/sɒft/

adjective
comparative softer, superlative softest
1. Easily giving way under pressure.
2. (of cloth or similar material) Smooth and flexible; not rough, rugged, or harsh.
  Quotations
  They that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Matthew 11:8
3. (of a sound) Quiet.
  Quotations
  Her voice was ever soft, / Gentle, and low, — an excellent thing in woman.
  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, [Act V, scene iii]
4. Gentle.
  Quotations
  I would to God my heart were flint, like Edward's; / Or Edward's soft and pitiful, like mine.
  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, [Act I, scene iii]
  The meek or soft shall inherit the earth.
  c. 1533, William Tyndale, An exposicion upon of Mathew
5. Expressing gentleness or tenderness; mild; conciliatory; courteous; kind.
  Quotations
  A soft answer turneth away wrath.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Proverbs 15:1
  A face with gladness overspread, / Soft smiles, by human kindness bred.
  1815, William Wordsworth, To a Highland Girl
6. Gentle in action or motion; easy.
  Quotations
  On her soft axle, white she paces even, / And bears thee soft with the smooth air along.
  1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,
7. Weak in character; impressible.
  Quotations
  The deceiver soon found this soft place of Adam's.
  1665, Joseph Glanvill, Scepsis Scientifica: Or, Confest Ignorance, the Way to Science; […], London: […] E. C[otes] for Henry Eversden […]
8. Requiring little or no effort; easy.
  Quotations
  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
9. Not bright or intense.
10. Having a slight angle from straight.
11. (phonetics) Voiced; sonant; lenis.
  Quotations
  DH represents the voiced (soft) th of English these clothes.
  1954, J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
12. (phonetics, rare) Voiceless.
13. (Slavic phonology) Palatalized.
14. (slang) Lacking strength or resolve; not tough, wimpy.
  Quotations
  ‘Going soft on me, Jack?’ ‘You know I’m not.’ ‘Then why all the fuss and blow?’
  1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 31
  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.
  2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, PC, scene: Prison Ship Purgatory
15. (of water) Low in dissolved calcium compounds.
16. (UK, colloquial) Foolish.
  Quotations
  He made soft fellows stark noddies, and such as were foolish quite mad.
  1621, Robert Burton, The Essential Anatomy of Melancholy
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. (UK, of a man) Effeminate.
  Quotations
  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
20. Agreeable to the senses.
  Quotations
  the soft, delicious air
  1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,
21. Not harsh or offensive to the sight; not glaring or jagged; pleasing to the eye.
  Quotations
  The sun, shining upon the upper part of the clouds […] made the softest lights imaginable.
  1673, Edward Browne, A Brief Account of some Travels in Hungaria, Styria, Bulgaria, Thessaly, Austria, Serbia, Carynthia, Carniola, and Friuli
22. (photography, of light) Made up of nonparallel rays, tending to wrap around a subject and produce diffuse shadows.
23. Incomplete, or temporary; not a full action.
24. (computing) Emulated with software; not physically real.
25. (of a drug) Not likely to cause addiction.
26. (of a drink) Not containing alcohol.
27. Easy-going, lenient, not strict; permissive.
28. (finance) Of a market: having more supply than demand; being a buyer's market.
  Quotations
  Overall the rental market is soft and multifamily permit activity is almost nonexistent.
  1995, U.S. Housing Market Conditions, page 45
29. (of pornography) Softcore.
30. Of paper: unsized.
31. Of silk: having the natural gum cleaned or washed off.
32. Of coal: bituminous, as opposed to anthracitic.
33. Of weather: warm enough to melt ice; thawing.
interjection
1. (archaic) Be quiet; hold; stop; not so fast.
  Quotations
  Soft, you; a word or two before you go.But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
  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, [Act V, scene ii]
noun
plural softs
1. A soft or foolish person; an idiot.
  Quotations
  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.
  1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter 9, in Adam Bede […], volume I, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, book first
2. (motor racing) Ellipsis of soft tyre. (A tyre whose compound is softer than mediums, and harder than supersofts.)
3. (colloquial) A soft sound or part of a sound.
  Quotations
  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
4. (computing, dated, nonstandard, rare) A piece of software.
  Quotations
  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

soft²

/sɒft/

adverb
comparative more soft, superlative most soft
1. (obsolete) Softly; without roughness or harshness; gently; quietly.
  Quotations
  A Knight soft ryding towards them they spyde
  1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, stanza 9
  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.
  1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter II, in The Lodger, London: Methuen; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], page 0091

Definition of "soft"

soft1

adjective

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interjection

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noun

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soft2

adverb

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soft¹

soft²