be soft on someone
adjective
1.
yielding readily to touch or pressure; easily penetrated, divided, or changed in shape; not hard or stiff: a soft pillow.
2.
relatively deficient in hardness, as metal or wood.
3.
smooth and agreeable to the touch; not rough or coarse: a soft fabric; soft skin.
4.
producing agreeable sensations; pleasant or comfortable: soft slumber.
5.
low or subdued in sound; gentle and melodious: soft music; a soft voice.
6.
not harsh or unpleasant to the eye; not glaring: soft light; a soft color.
7.
not hard or sharp: soft outlines.
8.
gentle or mild: soft breezes.
9.
genial or balmy, as climate or air.
10.
gentle, mild, warm-hearted, or compassionate: a soft, grandmotherly woman.
11.
smooth, soothing, or ingratiating: soft words.
12.
not harsh or severe, as a penalty or demand.
13.
responsive or sympathetic to the feelings, emotions, needs, etc., of others; tender-hearted.
14.
sentimental or flowery, as language: soft, meaningless talk.
15.
not strong or robust; delicate; incapable of great endurance or exertion: He was too soft for the Marines.
16.
Informal. easy; involving little effort; not difficult, laborious, trying, or severe: a soft job.
17.
Informal. easily influenced or swayed; easily imposed upon; impressionable.
18.
lenient, permissive, or conciliatory, especially regarding something that is conceived of as dangerous or threatening: to be soft on Communism.
19.
(of water) relatively free from mineral salts that interfere with the action of soap.
20.
(of paper money or a monetary system) not supported by sufficient gold reserves or not easily convertible into a foreign currency.
21.
(of a market, market condition, or prices) declining in value, volume, profitability, etc.; weak: a soft tourist season. Compare firm1 ( def 7 ).
22.
(of money) plentiful or available at low interest rates or on easy terms: a soft loan.
23.
24.
Metallurgy.
a.
(of a metal) easily magnetized and demagnetized.
b.
(of solder) fusing readily.
c.
(of a metal or alloy) fully annealed, so as to provide minimum mechanical hardness.
25.
Photography.
a.
(of a photographic image) having delicate gradations of tone.
b.
(of a focus) lacking in sharpness.
c.
(of a lens) unable to be focused sharply.
26.
Phonetics.
a.
(of consonants) lenis, especially lenis and voiced.
b.
(of c and g ) pronounced as in cent and gem.
c.
(of consonants in Slavic languages) palatalized. Compare hard ( def 38 ).
27.
Military. (of a missile-launching base) aboveground and relatively unprotected from enemy attack.
28.
Aerospace. (of a landing of a space vehicle) gentle; not harmful to the vehicle or its contents: a soft landing on the moon.
29.
Physics. (of a beam of particles or electromagnetic radiation) having relatively low energy: soft x-rays. Compare hard ( def 40 ).
30.
(of a delegate, voter, etc.) not committed to any one candidate.
31.
foolish or stupid: soft in the head.
32.
(of a detergent) readily biodegradable.
noun
33.
something that is soft or yielding; the soft part.
34.
softness.
00:10
Be soft on someone
is always a great word to know.
So is interrobang. Does it mean:
| a gadget; dingus; thingumbob. |
| a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question. |
adverb
35.
in a soft manner.
interjection Archaic.
Idioms 36.
be quiet! hush!
37.
not so fast! stop!
38.
be soft on someone, Informal. to be amorously inclined toward a person; have an affection for: He's been soft on her for years.
Origin:
before 1000; Middle English softe yielding, gentle, mild, Old English sōfte agreeable; cognate with German sanft
before 1000; Middle English softe yielding, gentle, mild, Old English sōfte agreeable; cognate with German sanft
Related forms
soft·ly, adverb
soft·ness, noun
o·ver·soft, adjective
o·ver·soft·ly, adverb
o·ver·soft·ness, noun
su·per·soft, adjective
ul·tra·soft, adjective
ul·tra·soft·ly, adverb
ul·tra·soft·ness, noun
un·soft, adjective
un·soft·ly, adverb
un·soft·ness, noun
Synonyms
1. pliable, plastic, malleable. 5. mellifluous, dulcet, sweet. 10. tender, sympathetic. 11. mollifying. 15. weak, feeble. 17. compliant, irresolute, submissive.
1. pliable, plastic, malleable. 5. mellifluous, dulcet, sweet. 10. tender, sympathetic. 11. mollifying. 15. weak, feeble. 17. compliant, irresolute, submissive.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source
|
Link To be soft on someone
Collins
World English Dictionary
soft (sɒft) ![[Click for IPA pronunciation guide]](http://static.sfdict.com/dictstatic/g/d/dictionary_questionbutton_default.gif) | |
| —adj | |
| 1. | easy to dent, work, or cut without shattering; malleable |
| 2. | not hard; giving little or no resistance to pressure or weight |
| 3. | fine, light, smooth, or fluffy to the touch |
| 4. | gentle; tranquil |
| 5. | (of music, sounds, etc) low and pleasing |
| 6. | (of light, colour, etc) not excessively bright or harsh |
| 7. | (of a breeze, climate, etc) temperate, mild, or pleasant |
| 8. | dialect drizzly or rainy: a soft day; the weather has turned soft |
| 9. | slightly blurred; not sharply outlined: soft focus |
| 10. | (of a diet) consisting of easily digestible foods |
| 11. | kind or lenient, often excessively so |
| 12. | easy to influence or impose upon |
| 13. | prepared to compromise; not doctrinaire: the soft left |
| 14. | informal feeble or silly; simple (often in the phrase soft in the head) |
| 15. | unable to endure hardship, esp through too much pampering |
| 16. | physically out of condition; flabby: soft muscles |
| 17. | loving; tender: soft words |
| 18. | informal requiring little exertion; easy: a soft job |
| 19. | chem (of water) relatively free of mineral salts and therefore easily able to make soap lather |
| 20. | Compare hard (of a drug such as cannabis) nonaddictive or only mildly addictive |
| 21. | (of news coverage) concentrating on trivial stories or those with human interest |
| 22. | phonetics |
| a. an older word for lenis | |
| b. (not in technical usage) denoting the consonants c and g in English when they are pronounced as palatal or alveolar fricatives or affricates (s, //, //, //, //) before e and i, rather than as velar stops (k, g) | |
| c. (in the Slavonic languages) palatalized before a front vowel or a special character (soft sign) written as ƃ | |
| 23. | a. unprotected against attack: a soft target |
| b. military unarmoured, esp as applied to a truck by comparison with a tank | |
| 24. | chiefly (US) finance (of prices, a market, etc) unstable and tending to decline |
| 25. | (of a currency) in relatively little demand, esp because of a weak balance of payments situation |
| 26. | (of radiation, such as X-rays and ultraviolet radiation) having low energy and not capable of deep penetration of materials |
| 27. | physics (of valves or tubes) only partially evacuated |
| 28. | related to the performance of non-specific, undefinable tasks: soft skills such as customer services and office support |
| 29. | soft on, soft about |
| a. gentle, sympathetic, or lenient towards | |
| b. feeling affection or infatuation for | |
| —adv | |
| 30. | in a soft manner: to speak soft |
| —n | |
| 31. | a soft object, part, or piece |
| 32. | informal See softie |
| —interj | |
| 33. | quiet! |
| 34. | wait! |
| [Old English sōfte; related to Old Saxon sāfti, Old High German semfti gentle] | |
| 'softly | |
| —adv | |
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
Etymonline
Word Origin & History
soft
O.E. softe "gentle, easy, comfortable," from W.Gmc. *samfti, from P.Gmc. *samftijaz "level, even, smooth, gentle, soft" (cf. O.S. safti, O.H.G. semfti, Ger. sanft, M.Du. sachte, Du. zacht), from base *som- "fitting, agreeable." Sense of "causing little hardship or suffering" attested from c.1200. Of
sounds, from mid-13c. Meaning "foolish, simple, silly" is attested from 1620s. Adjective soft core (in ref. to pornography) is from 1966. Soft rock as a music style is attested from 1969. Soft sell is from 1955. Soft-shoe as a dancing style is attested from 1927. Soft-hearted first recorded 1590s.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
Cite This Source
Slang Dictionary
soft definition
|
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source
American Heritage
Abbreviations & Acronyms
| SOFT Society of Forensic Toxicologists |
The American Heritage® Abbreviations Dictionary, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Word Dynamo By Dictionary.com
Nearby Words
Copyright © 2013 Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
