What's the difference between hard and soft?

Hard


Definition:

  • (superl.) Not easily penetrated, cut, or separated into parts; not yielding to pressure; firm; solid; compact; -- applied to material bodies, and opposed to soft; as, hard wood; hard flesh; a hard apple.
  • (superl.) Difficult, mentally or judicially; not easily apprehended, decided, or resolved; as a hard problem.
  • (superl.) Difficult to accomplish; full of obstacles; laborious; fatiguing; arduous; as, a hard task; a disease hard to cure.
  • (superl.) Difficult to resist or control; powerful.
  • (superl.) Difficult to bear or endure; not easy to put up with or consent to; hence, severe; rigorous; oppressive; distressing; unjust; grasping; as, a hard lot; hard times; hard fare; a hard winter; hard conditions or terms.
  • (superl.) Difficult to please or influence; stern; unyielding; obdurate; unsympathetic; unfeeling; cruel; as, a hard master; a hard heart; hard words; a hard character.
  • (superl.) Not easy or agreeable to the taste; stiff; rigid; ungraceful; repelling; as, a hard style.
  • (superl.) Rough; acid; sour, as liquors; as, hard cider.
  • (superl.) Abrupt or explosive in utterance; not aspirated, sibilated, or pronounced with a gradual change of the organs from one position to another; -- said of certain consonants, as c in came, and g in go, as distinguished from the same letters in center, general, etc.
  • (superl.) Wanting softness or smoothness of utterance; harsh; as, a hard tone.
  • (superl.) Rigid in the drawing or distribution of the figures; formal; lacking grace of composition.
  • (superl.) Having disagreeable and abrupt contrasts in the coloring or light and shade.
  • (adv.) With pressure; with urgency; hence, diligently; earnestly.
  • (adv.) With difficulty; as, the vehicle moves hard.
  • (adv.) Uneasily; vexatiously; slowly.
  • (adv.) So as to raise difficulties.
  • (adv.) With tension or strain of the powers; violently; with force; tempestuously; vehemently; vigorously; energetically; as, to press, to blow, to rain hard; hence, rapidly; as, to run hard.
  • (adv.) Close or near.
  • (v. t.) To harden; to make hard.
  • (n.) A ford or passage across a river or swamp.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Lucy and Ed will combine coverage of hard and breaking news with a commitment to investigative journalism, which their track record so clearly demonstrates”.
  • (2) Sierra Leone is one of the three West Africa nations hit hard by an Ebola epidemic this year.
  • (3) Topical and systemic antibiotic therapy is common in dermatology, yet it is hard to find a rationale for a particular route in some diseases.
  • (4) Given Australia’s number one position as the worst carbon emitter per capita among major western nations it seems hardly surprising that islanders from Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu and other small island developing states have been turning to Australia with growing exasperation demanding the country demonstrate an appropriate response and responsibility.
  • (5) They had learned through hard experience what Frederick Douglass once taught -- that freedom is not given, it must be won, through struggle and discipline, persistence and faith.
  • (6) In 60 rhesus monkeys with experimental renovascular malignant arterial hypertension (25 one-kidney and 35 two-kidney model animals), we studied the so-called 'hard exudates' or white retinal deposits in detail (by ophthalmoscopy, and stereoscopic color fundus photography and fluorescein fundus angiography, on long-term follow-up).
  • (7) It is a moment to be grateful for what remains of Labour's hard left: an amendment to scrap the cap was at least tabled by John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn but stood no chance.
  • (8) She stopped working only when the pain made it hard for her to get to work.
  • (9) He was reclusive, I know that, and he was often given a hard time for it.
  • (10) This defeat, though, is hardly a good calling card for the main job.
  • (11) Since this test is easily performed and hardly stresses the patient, it should routinely be the initial one for the diagnosis of renal osteopathy.
  • (12) Never become so enamored of your own smarts that you stop signing up for life’s hard classes.
  • (13) But I don't wish to be too hard on the judge for not taking that view.
  • (14) Our campaign has been going for some time and each step in our progress has been hard won, by campaigners paid and volunteer alike.
  • (15) I am rooting hard for you.” Ronald Reagan simply told his former vice-president Bush: “Don’t let the turkeys get you down.” By 10.30am Michelle Obama and Melania Trump will join the outgoing and incoming presidents in a presidential limousine to drive to the Capitol.
  • (16) All the same, it's hard to approach the school, which charges nearly £28,000 for boarders and nearly £19,000 for day girls and is sometimes called "the girls' Eton", without a few prejudices.
  • (17) Governmental officials as well as medical scientists in Taiwan have worked hard in recent years to develop and to implement various measures, such as prenatal diagnosis and neonatal screening, to lower the incidence of hereditary diseases and mental retardation in the population.
  • (18) Cooper, who was briefly a social worker in Los Angeles, also suggests working hard to build a rapport with colleagues in hotdesking situations.
  • (19) Critics of wind power peddle the same old myths about investment in new energy sources adding to families' fuel bills , preferring to pick a fight with people concerned about the environment, than stand up to vested interests in the energy industry, for the hard-pressed families and pensioners being ripped off by the energy giants.
  • (20) The spirit is great here, the players work very hard, we kept the belief when we were in third place and now we are here.

Soft


Definition:

  • (superl.) Easily yielding to pressure; easily impressed, molded, or cut; not firm in resisting; impressible; yielding; also, malleable; -- opposed to hard; as, a soft bed; a soft peach; soft earth; soft wood or metal.
  • (superl.) Not rough, rugged, or harsh to the touch; smooth; delicate; fine; as, soft silk; a soft skin.
  • (superl.) Hence, agreeable to feel, taste, or inhale; not irritating to the tissues; as, a soft liniment; soft wines.
  • (superl.) Not harsh or offensive to the sight; not glaring; pleasing to the eye; not exciting by intensity of color or violent contrast; as, soft hues or tints.
  • (superl.) Not harsh or rough in sound; gentle and pleasing to the ear; flowing; as, soft whispers of music.
  • (superl.) Easily yielding; susceptible to influence; flexible; gentle; kind.
  • (superl.) Expressing gentleness, tenderness, or the like; mild; conciliatory; courteous; kind; as, soft eyes.
  • (superl.) Effeminate; not courageous or manly, weak.
  • (superl.) Gentle in action or motion; easy.
  • (superl.) Weak in character; impressible.
  • (superl.) Somewhat weak in intellect.
  • (superl.) Quiet; undisturbed; paceful; as, soft slumbers.
  • (superl.) Having, or consisting of, a gentle curve or curves; not angular or abrupt; as, soft outlines.
  • (superl.) Not tinged with mineral salts; adapted to decompose soap; as, soft water is the best for washing.
  • (superl.) Applied to a palatal, a sibilant, or a dental consonant (as g in gem, c in cent, etc.) as distinguished from a guttural mute (as g in go, c in cone, etc.); -- opposed to hard.
  • (superl.) Belonging to the class of sonant elements as distinguished from the surd, and considered as involving less force in utterance; as, b, d, g, z, v, etc., in contrast with p, t, k, s, f, etc.
  • (n.) A soft or foolish person; an idiot.
  • (adv.) Softly; without roughness or harshness; gently; quietly.
  • (interj.) Be quiet; hold; stop; not so fast.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) In conclusion, the efficacy of free tissue transfer in the treatment of osteomyelitis is geared mainly at enabling the surgeon to perform a wide radical debridement of infected and nonviable soft tissue and bone.
  • (2) Bilateral symmetric soft-tissue masses posterior to the glandular tissue with accompanying calcifications should suggest the diagnosis.
  • (3) None of the other soft tissue layers-ameloblasts, stratum intermedium or dental follicle--immunostain for TGF-beta 1.
  • (4) The cotransfected cells do not grow in soft agar, but show enhanced soft agar growth relative to controls in the presence of added aFGF and heparin.
  • (5) It was hypothesized that compensatory restraining influences of surrounding soft tissues prevented a more severe facial malformation from occurring.
  • (6) After the diagnosis of a soft-tissue injury (sprain, strain, or contusion) has been made, treatment must include an initial 24- to 48-hour period of RICE.
  • (7) It is a specific clinical picture with extensive soft tissue gas and swelling of the forearm.
  • (8) Benign and malignant epithelial and soft tissue tumors of the skin were usually negatively stained with MoAb HMSA-2.
  • (9) The patient, a 12 year-old boy, showed a soft white yellowish mycotic excrescence with clear borders which had followed the introduction of a small piece of straw into the cornea.
  • (10) In open fractures especially in those with severe soft tissue damage, fracture stabilisation is best achieved by using external fixators.
  • (11) A distally based posterior tibial artery adipofascial flap with skin graft was used for the reconstruction of soft tissue defects over the Achilles tendon in three cases and over the heel in three cases.
  • (12) The third patient was using an extended-wear soft contact lens for correction of residual myopia.
  • (13) Computed tomography (CT) is the most sensitive radiologic study for detecting these tumors, which usually are small, round, sharply marginated, and of homogeneous soft tissue density.
  • (14) The latter indicated that, despite the smaller size of the digital image, they were adequate for resolving clinically significant soft-tissue densities.
  • (15) We isolated soft agar colonies (a-subclones) and sub-clones from foci (h-subclones) of both hybrids, and, as a control, subclones of cells from random areas without foci of one hybrid (BS181 p-subclones).
  • (16) Three of the tumours represented primary soft tissue lesions, while locally recurrent tumour or pulmonary metastases were studied from the 4 skeletal tumours, all of which had been diagnosed previously as Ewing's sarcomas.
  • (17) The technique is based on a multiple regression analysis of the renal curves and separate heart and soft tissue curves which together represent background activity.
  • (18) A hospital-based case-control study on soft tissue sarcomas (STS) was conducted in 1983-84 in Torino and in Padova (Italy).
  • (19) This phenomenon can have a special significance for defining the vitality in inflammation of bone tissue, in burns and in necrosis of soft tissues a.a. of the Achilles tendon.
  • (20) Thirty patients required a second operation to an area previously addressed reflecting inadequacies in technique, the unpredictability of bone grafts, and soft-tissue scarring.