Also 3, 5 softe, 8–9 Sc. and north. saft. [f. the adj.]
1. That which is agreeable, pleasant or easy; comfort, ease. rare.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 3647. Ðis folc is after softe toȝen, And hauen swinc in weiȝe droȝen.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 15564. Bot sal we elles suffre samen, bath soft and sare.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 3446. For though thou love thus evermore, To me is neither softe ne sore.
1677. Horneck, Gt. Law Consid., iv. (1704), 112. They are afraid it … will discompose them in their golden dreams, drive them from their softs and ease.
2. That which is soft or yielding; the soft part of something; softness.
1593. B. Barnes, Parthenophil, III. 83. O Love’s soft hills!… How much, at your smooth soft, my sense amazed is! Ibid., 119. I might work miracles to change again The hard to soft!
1611. Florio, Móllo,… the soft or spunginesse of any thing, as of crummes of bread.
1653. R. Sanders, Physiogn., 63. All this enclosed space is commonly called the soft of the Thumb.
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 130. He hugg’d her only with his two forefeet, which he had thrust so into the soft of her sides, as to make two deep doaks there.
1784. Cowper, Task, III. 417. Nor does he spare the soft And succulent, that feeds its giant growth.
transf. 1871. R. Ellis, Catullus, lxviii. 120. Not to a grandsire old…, so lovely the grandson One dear daughter alone rears i’ the soft of his years.
b. Cant. Bank notes.
1864. in Slang Dict.
c. pl. Soft coal; also, soft woollen rags.
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal-mining, 229. Softs.… Coals which easily break up.
1894. Times, 17 April, 4/5. The best demand was for nuts,… but Barnsley softs were again to be had at from 7s. 6d. to 8s.
3. Phonetics. A soft or voiced consonant.
1846. M. Williams, Sanscr. Gram., 10. The soft is changed to its unaspirated hard.
1871. Abbott & Seeley, Eng. Lessons, 43. Aspirates and softs … are modified in a corresponding manner.
4. U.S. political slang. a. A member of a local party which advocated a ‘soft money’ or paper currency. b. A member of one or other party holding moderate views. Cf. SOFT-SHELL sb.
1847–54. in R. H. Thornton, American Gloss. (1912), s.v. Hards and Softs.
1859. Bartlett, Dict. Amer. (ed. 2), 426. Soft-Shell Democrats, Soft-Shells, or Softs. The less conservative division of the New York Democrats.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., II. II. xlvi. 203. The Hunkers and Barnburners who divided the Democratic party forty years ago, and subsequently passed into the ‘Hards’ and the ‘Softs.’
5. A soft, simple or foolish person; a ‘softy.’ Chiefly dial. or colloq.
1854–. in dial. glossaries and texts (Northampt., Linc., Lanc., Berks, etc.).
1859. Geo. Eliot, A. Bede, I. I. ix. 180. It’ll do you no good to sit in a spring-cart o’ your own, if you’ve got a soft to drive you.
1864. E. Sargent, Peculiar, III. 71–2. If the world were in the hands of such softs, the old machine would be smashed up in universal anarchy.
