(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.) 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.
Soften
Definition:
(v. t.) To make soft or more soft.
(v. t.) To render less hard; -- said of matter.
(v. t.) To mollify; to make less fierce or intractable.
(v. t.) To palliate; to represent as less enormous; as, to soften a fault.
(v. t.) To compose; to mitigate; to assuage.
(v. t.) To make less harsh, less rude, less offensive, or less violent, or to render of an opposite quality.
(v. t.) To make less glaring; to tone down; as, to soften the coloring of a picture.
(v. t.) To make tender; to make effeminate; to enervate; as, troops softened by luxury.
(v. t.) To make less harsh or grating, or of a quality the opposite; as, to soften the voice.
(v. i.) To become soft or softened, or less rude, harsh, severe, or obdurate.
Example Sentences:
(1) The other trend involved softening from penetrant liquid absorption and a concomitant decrease in hardness.
(2) Golding said the government would not soften its stance on drug trafficking and it intended to use a proportion of revenues from its licensing authority to support a public education campaign to discourage pot-smoking by young people and mitigate public health consequences.
(3) Pathologically, there was diffuse incomplete softening of white matter in all cases.
(4) Aware that her press secretary, Bernard Ingham, a former labour correspondent for the Guardian who understood the range of attitudes within trade unions, had tried to soften the impression that she saw Kinnock as another General Galtieri [Argentina’s president during the Falklands war], the draft text tried to distinguish between unions, rival parties and what the final text (the one she actually delivered) called “an organised revolutionary minority” with their “outmoded Marxist dogma about class warfare”.
(5) Add the onion, cook for three minutes, stirring, until softened, then add the wine, sage, lemon peel, lemon juice and 150ml water.
(6) Welfare cuts are now becoming a matter of life or death | Letters Read more But government sources suggested the political pressures on Osborne, who has been criticised publicly by a series of Tory MPs, suggest he will act more flexibly and direct substantial resources to softening the impact of the cuts.
(7) Moisture on the skin was shown to increase the discharge to a standard stimulus, probably by its softening effect on the stratum corneum.
(8) The importance of R for cervical softening during pregnancy and its interaction with E near term and during parturition are discussed.
(9) He and Cameron have spent the week softening up opinion for huge benefit cuts in next week’s budget , due to focus on tax credits, largely paid to in-work, ”hardworking” families, victims of Britain’s swelling ranks of the under-paid.
(10) The method of aspiration with a standard electric operative aspirator should be used for evacuation of the softened brain matter.
(11) But he also suggested the administration was softening its commitment to the Minsk framework for a deal.
(12) In a casserole over a medium heat, fry the onions in the oil and butter for 5 minutes, to soften.
(13) Its lines soften, its edges fade; it shrinks into the raw cold from the river, more like a shrouded mountain than a castle built for kings.
(14) The wizened fish is hammered with a mallet to soften it so you can pull it off in strips to eat.
(15) The substitution of the softeners with deionisers solved this important and unusual clinical problem.
(16) Softening and elution are not sufficient for constriction, however, since high potassium, 2,4-dinitrophenol, and cyanide inhibited constriction without inhibiting the softening or elution of axoplasm.
(17) Ribotyping patterns of aeromonads recovered from well 1, detention basin, sand filter, softener, and distribution samples were compared with those of the five clinical isolates.
(18) By softening these insects in a detergent solution, however, it is possible to make most observations in the same way as on fresh material.
(19) His and Osborne's post-election "softening up" is returning to haunt them.
(20) But recently, their attitude has softened as they realise the importance of music to the island.