sofa 
bench or settee upholstered with permanent 
cushions. See cut under settee. 
Thus first Necessity invented stools, 
Convenience next suggested elbow chairs. 
And Luxury th' accomplish d SoSaJwt. ^^ . ^ 
sofa-bed (so'fa-bed), . A piece of furniture 
forming a sofa, as during the day, but capable 
of being opened or altered in shape so as to rur- 
nish a bed at night. 
One of those sofa-beds common In French houses. 
Buhner, Night and Morning, ill. 12. 
sofa-bedstead (so'fa-bed'sted), . Same as 
*tifa-l>e(t. 
innumerable specimens of that imposition on society - 
a sofa bedstead. Dickens, Sketches, Scenes, xxi. 
SOfettt(so'fet),H. [Dim. < so/a + -e<.] A small 
sofa. [Rare.] 
soffit (sof'it), w. [< F. soffite = Sp. sofito, < It. 
soffitta, soffitto, < L. as if "sufficta, 'suffictus (tor 
suffixa, suffixws), pp. of suffigere, fix beneath : see 
suffix.] 1. In 
arch.: (a) The 
under hori- 
zontal face of 
an architrave 
between col- 
umns. (6) The 
lower surface 
of an arch, (c) 
The ceiling of 
a room, when 
j, j, Soffits () and (*). 
at cvviuj wiiuii 
divided by cross-beams into panels, compart- 
ments, or laeunaria. (d) The under face of an 
overhanging cornice, of a projecting balcony, 
an entablature, a staircase, etc. 2. In scene- 
painting, a border. See scene, 4. 
SOffreH, A Middle English form of suffer. 
soffre 2 (sof er), n. [S. Amer.] A South Amer- 
ican yellow troopial, Icterus jamacaii. 
sofl, sofism. See sufi, sufism. 
soft (soft), a. and . [< ME. soft, softe, < AS. 
softe, sefte = OS. sdfti = MD. sacht, saecM, D. 
zacht = MLG. LG. sacht (> G. sacht) = OHG. 
semfti, MHG. semfte, senfte, G. sanft, soft (see 
the adv.); perhaps akin to Goth, samjan, please : 
see seem, same. For the D. and LG. forms, which 
havec/ifor/, cf. similar forms of shaft 1 , shaft 2 .] 
1. . 1. Yielding readily to pressure; easily 
penetrated; impressible; yielding: opposed to 
hard: as, a soft bed; a soft apple; soft earth; 
softwood; a soft mineral ; easily susceptible of 
change of form ; hence, easily worked ; mallea- 
ble: as, soft iron; lead is softer than gold. 
A good soft pillow for that good white head 
Were better than a churlish turf of France. 
Shot., Hen. V., iv. 1. 14. 
For spirits, when they please, 
Can either sex assume, or both ; so soft 
And uncompounded is their essence pure. 
Milton, P. L., i. 424. 
The earth, that ought to be as hard as a biscuit, is as 
soft as dough. Sydney Smith, To Lady Ilolland, vl. 
2. Affecting the senses in a mild, smooth, bland, 
delicate, or agreeable manner, (a) Smooth and 
agreeable to the touch ; free from roughness or harsh- 
ness ; not rugged, rough, or coarse ; delicate ; fine : as, a 
soft skin; soft hair; soft silk ; soft dress-materials. 
Buy is a small hound ; his coat of soft and erect ash- 
coloured hair is especially long and thick about the neck 
and shoulders. Fortnightly Rev., N. S., XLIII. 89. 
(b) Mild and agreeable; gentle; genial; kindly. 
The soft airs that o'er the meadows play. 
Bryant, Our Fellow- Worshippers. 
Soft the ail 1 was as of deathless May. 
William Morris, Earthly Paradise, III. 343. 
(c) Smooth; flowing; not rough or vehement; not harsh; 
gentle or melodious to the ear : as, a sofl sound ; sofl ac- 
cents ; soft whispers. 
Her voice was ever soft, 
Gentle, and low an excellent thing in woman. 
Shale., Lear, v. 8. 272. 
Soft were ray numbers ; who could take offence? 
Pope, Prol. to Satires, 1. 147. 
The sofl murmur of the vagrant Bee. 
Wordsworth, Vernal Ode, iv. 
(d) Not harsh or offensive to the sight ; mild to the eye ; 
not strong or glaring ; not exciting by intensity of color 
or violent contrast : as, soft colors ; the soft, coloring of a 
picture. 
The sun, shining upon the upper part of the clouds 
made ... the softest, sweetest lights imaginable. 
Sir T. Browne, Travels. (Latham.) 
It is hard to Imagine a softer curve than that with which 
the mountain sweeps down from Albano to the plain. 
B. James, Jr., Trans. Sketches, p. 146. 
8. Bituminous, as opposed to anthracitie: said 
of coal. 4. Nearly free from lime or magnesia 
salts, and therefore forming a lather with soap 
without leaving a curd-like deposit: said of 
water. 
5748 
A great elm-tree spread its broad branches over it[Van 
Tassel's farmhouse],' at the foot of which bubbled up a 
spring of the softest and sweetest water, in a little well 
formed of a barrel. Irving, Sketch-Book, p. 427. 
5. Unsized: as, soft paper. 6. Mild: noting 
the weather, (a) Open ; genial. 
The nyght was feire and clere, and a .sofle weder in the 
myddill of Aprill. Merhn (E. E. T. S.), il. 240. 
The wild hedge-rose 
Of a soft winter. 
Tennyson, Queen Mary, 111. 6. 
(b) Moist ; wet or rainy : as, a ioft day. 
It was a gray day, damp and soft, with no wind ; one of 
those days which are not unusual in the valley of the 
Thames. Mrs. Oliphant, Poor Gentleman, xxxix. 
(c) Warm enough to melt snow or ice ; thawing. [New 
7" In phonetics, pronounced with more or less 
of a sibilant sound and without explosive ut- 
terance, as c in cinder as opposed to c in can- 
dle, g in gin as opposed to g in gift; also often 
used instead of sonant or voiced or the like for 
an alphabetic sound uttered with tone. 8. 
Tender; delicate. 
Have I nat of a capoun but the lyvere, 
And of youre softe [var. white] breed nat but a shyvere, . . . 
Thanne hadde I with yow hoomly sufflsannce. 
Chaucer, Summoner's Tale, 1. 132. 
Why are our bodies soft and weak and smooth. 
Unapt to toil and trouble in the world, 
But that our sofl conditions and our hearts 
Should well agree with our external parts? 
Shak., T. of the a, v. 2. 1B7. 
9. Effeminate; lacking manliness, hardiness, 
or courage; easy to overcome ; gentle. 
Somday boughten they of Troye it dere, 
And eft the Greekes founden nothinge sofle 
The folk of Troy. Chaucer, Trollus, i. 137. 
When a warlike State grows soft and effeminate, they 
may be sure of a war. 
Bacon, Vicissitudes of Things (ed. 1887X 
10. Easily persuaded, moved, or acted upon ; 
impressible ; hence, facile ; weak ; simple ; fool- 
ish; silly. 
What cannot such scoffers do, especially if they find a 
soft creature on whom they may work. 
Burton, Anat of Mel., p. 209. 
A few divines of so sort and servile tempers as disposed 
them to so sudden acting and compliance. 
Kticon Basilike. 
He made . . . soft fellows stark noddies ; and such as 
were foolish quite mad. Burton, Anat. of Mel., p. 149. 
11. Slack; easy-going; without care or anxiety. 
Under a shepherde softe and necligent 
The wolf hath many a sheepe and lamb to-rent 
Chaucer, Physician's Tale, 1. 101. 
12. Mild; gentle; kind; sympathetic; easily 
touched or moved; susceptible; tender; mer- 
ciful; courteous; not rough, rude, or irritat- 
ing: as, soft manners. 
There segh thai that semly, & with soft wordys, 
Comford hur kyndly with carpyng of mowthe. 
Destruction of Troy (E. E. T. S.), 1. 7608. 
A so/6 answer turneth away wrath. Prov. xv. 1. 
Women are soft, mild, pitiful, and flexible ; 
Thou stern, obdurate, flinty, rough, remorseless. 
Shak., S Ben. VI., 1.4. 141. 
13. Easy; gentle; steady and even, especially 
in action or motion. 
Furth they went, 
As soft a pace as y> myght with hym goo ; 
Too se hym in that plight they were full woo. 
Oenerydes (E. E. T. S.), 1. 2870. 
Notwithstondynge the contynuall tedyous calme, we 
made sayle with right softe spede. 
Sir R. Guylforde, Pylgrymage, p. 77. 
With inoffensive pace that spinning sleeps 
On her soft axle ; while she [the earth] paces even, 
And bears thee soft with the smooth air along. 
Hilton, P. L., viii. 165. 
14. In anat., not bony, cartilaginous, dentinal, 
etc. : as, the so/< parts or soft tissues of the body : 
not specific. 15. When noting silk, having 
the natural gum removed by cleaning or wash- 
ing: distinguished from hard. 16. In ichth., 
not spinous ; soft-rayed : noting fins or fin-rays : 
as, a soft dorsal or anal (fin). See soft-finned, 
and cut under Malacopterygii. 17. In conch. 
&n(iherpet. , soft-shelled. 18. In Crustacea, soft- 
shelled A soft thing, a snug berth, in which work is 
light and remunerative ; a comfortable or very desirable 
place. Also called a soft snap. [Slang.] Soft bast. See 
oo<i, 2. Soft carbonates. See carbonate!. Soft chan- 
cre. Same as chancroid. Soft Clam, the common clam, 
Hya arenaria, and related forms, whose shell is compara- 
tively thin; a long clam: so called in distinction from vari- 
ous hard or round clams, as species of Venus, Mactra, etc. 
See cut under Mya. Soft CoaL See def. 3 and coal, 2. 
Soft commissure of the brain. Same as middle com- 
missure (which see, under commissure). Soft crab, a soft- 
shelled crab. See soft-shelled. Soft eplthem, a poultice ; 
specifically, a cold poultice of scraped raw potato applied 
to burns and scalds. Soft fish, maple, money, oyster. 
Seethe nouns. Soft palate. See palate, 1. Soft pedal 
pottery, pulse, sawder, snap, soap, solder. See the 
softener 
nouns. Soft tortoise or turtle. See mft-ehelled. Soft 
weather, a thaw. [New Eng.]-The softer sex See 
sexl.=8yn 1. Plastic, pliable.-2. (c) Mellifluous, dulcet. 
-10. Compliant, submissive, irresolute. -12 and 13. MM. 
Bland, etc. See gentle. 
II. n. 1. A soft or silly person ; a person who 
is weak or foolish ; a fool. Also softy. [Colloq. 
or slang.] 
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. ' Qeorye Kliot, Adam Bede, ix. 
2. [cop.] In V. S. politics: (a) A member or an 
adherent of that one of the two factions into 
which in 1852 and succeeding years the Demo- 
cratic party in the State of New York was di- 
vided which was less favorable to the extension 
of slavery. (6) A member of the pro-slavery 
wing of the Democratic party in Missouri about 
1850. See nard, n., 5. 
soft (soft), adv. [< ME. softe, < AS. softe = OS. 
sdfto = OHG. samfto, sanfto, MHG. samftr, 
sanfte, G. sanft, softly ; from the adj.] Softly ; 
gently; quietly. 
This child ful softe wynde and wrappe. 
Chaucer, Clerks Tale, 1. 527. 
Soft whispering thus to Nestor's son, 
His head reclin d, young Ithacus begun. 
Pope, Odyssey, Iv. 81. 
soft (soft), interj. [An elliptical use of soft, orfr.] 
Go softly! hold! stop! not so fast! 
Soft! 
The Jew shall have all justice ; soft! no haste ; 
He shall have nothing but the penalty. 
Shak., M. of V., iv. 1. 320. 
Soft who is that stands by the dying flre? 
M. Arnold, Tristram and Iseult. 
softt (s6ft), v. t. [< ME. soften, softien (= MLG. 
sachten), soften; < soft, o.] To soften; make 
soft. 
Soflynff with oynement. Rom. of the Rose, \. 1924. 
Yet cannot all these flames, in which I fry, 
Her hart more harde then yron soft a whit. 
Spenser, Sonnets, xxxii. 
softa (softs), n. [Alsoso/iJite; < Turk, so/to.] 
A Moslem student of sacred law and theologi- 
cal science. 
soft-bodied (soft'bod"id), a. In zool., having 
a soft body. Specifically applied to (o) the Mottusca 
or Malacozoa (see malacology); (b) the Malacodermata; 
(c) In Coleoptera, the Malacodermi; (d) in Bemiptera, the 
Capsidif. 
soft-conscienced (spft'kon'shenst), a. Hav- 
ing a tender conscience. Sliatc., Cor.,i. 1.37. 
[Rare.] 
soften (sof n), v. [< so/< + -ei. Cf. soft, v.] 
I. intrans. To become soft or less hard, (o) To be- 
come more penetrable, pliable, and yielding to pressure : 
as, iron softens with heat 
Many of those bodies that will not melt, or will hardly 
melt will notwithstanding soften. 
Bacon, Nat. Hist, J 840. 
(&) To become less rude, harsh, severe, or cruel ; grow less 
obstinate or obdurate; become more susceptible of hu- 
mane feelings and tenderness; relent. 
We do not know 
How he may soften at the sight o' the child. 
Shak., W. T., ii. 2. 40. 
(c) To pass by soft, imperceptible degrees ; melt ; blend. 
Shade unperceiv'd, so softening into shade. 
Thomson, Hymn, 1. 26. 
II. trans. To make soft, or more soft, (a) To 
make less hard in substance. 
Orpheus' lute was strune with poets' sinews, 
Whose golden touch could soften steel and stones. 
Shak., T. G. of V., ill. 2. 79. 
Their arrows' point they soften in the flame. 
Oay, The Fan, i. 183. 
(b) To mollify ; make less fierce or intractable ; make 
more susceptible of humane or fine feelings : as, to soften 
a hard heart ; to soften savage natures. 
Even the sullen disposition of Hash she evinced a facil- 
ity for softening by her playful repartees and beautiful 
smiles. 5. Judd, Margaret, li. 1. 
(c) To make tender ; make effeminate ; enervate : as, 
troops softened by luxury. 
Before Poets did soften TB, we were full of courage, 
ginen to martiall exercises. 
Sir P. Sidney, Apol. for Poetrie. 
(ti) To make less harsh or severe, less rude, less offensive 
or violent ; mitigate : as, to xoften an expression. 
He bore his great commission in his look, 
But sweetly temper*d awe, and soften'd all he spoke. 
Dryden. 
The asperity of his opinions was softened as his mind 
enlarged. Southey, Bunyan, p. 54. 
(e) To make less glaring ; tone down ; make less sharp 01 
harsh : as, to soften the coloring of a picture ; to soften 
the outline of something. (/) To make less strong or in- 
tense in sound ; make less loud ; make smooth to the ear : 
as, to soften the voice. 
softener (sof'ner), it. [< so/te + -*.] 1. 
One who or that which softens. 
His [Milton's] hand falls on his subject without the 
softener of cuff or ruffle. 
Landor, Imag. Conv., Andrew Marvel and Bp. Parker. 
