softness

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Quality of yielding readily to pressure

Nouns

1. softness, pliableness, pliancy, pliability, flexibility; malleability; ductility, tractility; extendability, extensibility; plasticity; flaccidity, flabbiness, laxity; sensitivity, responsiveness, susceptibility (see sensibility).

2. clay, wax, butter, dough, pudding; cushion, pillow, featherbed, down, padding, wadding; foam rubber.

3. softening, modification; mellowness, relaxation (see moderation).

Verbs — soften, mollify, mellow, relax, temper; mash, knead, squash; melt, liquefy; bend, yield, relent, give.

Adjectives — soft, tender, supple, pliant, pliable; flexible, flexile; sensitive, responsive, susceptible; lithe[some], lissom, limber, plastic; ductile; tractile, tractable; malleable, extensile; yielding, flabby, limp, flimsy; flaccid, flocculent, downy, feathery, fleecy, spongy, doughy; mellow, velvet[y], silky, satiny.

Adverbs — soft as butter, soft as down, soft as silk; yielding as wax.

Quotations — Music has charms to soothe a savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak (William Congreve).

Antonyms, see hardness, inelasticity.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

Syn. mellowness, impressibility, plasticity; see flexibility 1 .