soft

Etymology 1

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.

adj

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
3. (of a sound) Quiet.
   I could hear the soft rustle of the leaves in the trees.
4. Gentle.
   There was a soft breeze blowing.
   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.
   soft eyes
   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.
7. Weak in character; impressible.
8. Requiring little or no effort; easy.
   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.
   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. (phonetics) Voiced; sonant; lenis.
    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.
    When it comes to drinking, he is as soft as they come.
    ‘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, →OCLC, PC, scene: Prison Ship Purgatory
15. (of water) Low in dissolved calcium compounds.
    You won't need as much soap, as the water here is very soft.
16. (UK, colloquial) Foolish.
    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.
    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.
    a soft liniment
    soft wines
21. 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
    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.
    The admin imposed a soft ban on the user.
    Messages removed by soft deletion can be recovered if necessary.
24. (computing) Emulated with software; not physically real.
    Press the red button on the soft phone to hang up.
25. (of a drug) Not likely to cause addiction.
26. (of a drink) Not containing alcohol.
27. Easy-going, lenient, not strict; permissive.
    soft on crime
28. (finance) Of a market: having more supply than demand; being a buyer's market.
    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.

intj

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

noun

1. A soft or foolish person; an idiot.
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.
   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.
   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 2

From Middle English softe, from Old English sōfte (“softly”), from Proto-West Germanic *samftō (“softly”).

adv

1. (obsolete) Softly; without roughness or harshness; gently; quietly.