softballn.
/ˈsɒf(t)bɔːl/, U.S. /ˈsɔf(t)ˌbɔl/, /ˈsɑf(t)ˌbɑl/ 1. Originally and chiefly North American.
a. A modified form of baseball played on a smaller field with a larger (and slightly softer) ball, seven rather than nine innings, and underarm pitching. Cf. hardball n. 1.The game evolved during the late 19th cent. from a form of indoor baseball.
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > baseball > games similar to baseball > [noun]
baseball1748
pat-ball1775
town ball1813
stickball1824
rounders1828
roundball1834
feeder1844
one-old-cat1856
softball1867
one-eyed cat1908
vigoroc1930
slow-pitch1934
fast-pitch1939
stoop ball1941
fastball1943
lob ball1949
whiffle-ball1954
Wiffle ball1955
T-ball1962
1867 Freeport (Illinois) Daily Jrnl. 7 Aug. 8/5 A match game of ‘soft ball’ is on the tapis.
1907 Princeton Alumni Weekly 15 May 541/1 The delegates had luncheon and spent the afternoon playing baseball and ‘soft-ball’.
1947 J. Steinbeck Wayward Bus 54 A big and muscular young woman who taught ice hockey and softball and archery at the university.
1977 J. F. Fixx Compl. Bk. Running p. xvi Someone who all his life had played tennis, touch football and Saturday-afternoon softball shouldn't be thus laid low.
2012 New Yorker 2 Jan. 41/1 He had also coached girls' junior-varsity softball and boys' recreational basketball.
b. A ball used in the game of softball.
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > baseball > games similar to baseball > [noun] > ball
softball1936
whiffle-ball1954
Wiffle ball1955
1936 Physical Educ. & Health School Children (Univ. Chicago) viii. 112 The phases of softball stressed in the Sophomore year are: A. Reliability in throwing and in catching a softball.
1975 R. Kroetsch Badlands 136 Lumps of ice the size of softballs.
2005 J. Cox Around World in 80 Dates i. 2 I..whacked softballs in the batting cages over on Coney Island until my arms sang.
2. Usually as two words or with hyphen. A soft globule of sugar or syrup, esp. one formed when a small amount of a syrup is dropped into cold water as a means of testing that it has reached a certain temperature or stage of cooking; (also) the stage or temperature at which such a globule forms.A soft ball is formed at around 116°C.Quot. 1869 may not represent a fixed collocation.
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the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > preparation for table or cooking > preparing confectionery > [noun] > stages in boiling syrup
candy height1617
candying1656
thread1862
softball1869
caramelization1889
1869 London Jrnl. 1 Mar. 127/1 Boil until you can make a soft ball.
1894 E. Skuse Compl. Confectioner 70 Add the cocoanut slices and allow the whole to boil, for say ten minutes, or until the sugar comes to a soft ball.
1949 Life 26 Sept. 10/1 Cover and cook to medium soft ball.
1980 T. Stobart Cook's Encycl. 404/1 Soft ball—116°C (240°F). The sugar clinging to the skimmer will now, when shaken, produce a feathery, downy effect. The syrup is now beginning to thicken and will form a soft ball if a little of it is dropped into cold water.
2013 H. Bertinetti Bake it, don't fake It! 192 Soft Ball: 238° to 240°F. Tested by dropping a small amount of the hot syrup into cold water.
3. Chiefly as two words. A deliberately gentle or slow-paced shot in tennis and some other racket games; the use of shots of this kind as a tactic. Frequently attributive, designating tactics of this kind.
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > racket games > lawn tennis > [noun] > types of game
sudden death1834
matchplay1877
vantage-set1892
double1894
softball1914
breaker1979
challenger1990
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > racket games > lawn tennis > [noun] > types of play
serving1688
lobbing1889
net-play1899
net game1904
softball1914
tandem formation1967
moonballing1977
1914 Youth's Companion 13 Aug. 420/1 If you refrain from serving a soft ball and try to place in the corners, you can develop your practice into a game of some interest.
1933 N.Y. Times 7 Sept. 25 [Tennis.] It was Gledhill's clever exploitation of the softball game that was responsible for the elimination of the Milwaukee youth.
1962 Times 26 June 4/2 Playing soft ball, and apparently resigned to defeat, he was offered a reprieve by a casual opponent.
1975 World Tennis Sept. 28/2 The champion looked vulnerable against the Mexican's shrewd soft-ball tactics.
1995 R. Woods et al. Coaching Tennis Successfully ix. 129 The best play is a soft ball at the net team's feet.
Phrases
Originally North American. to play softball (figurative): to be accommodating, compromise, esp. in politics; cf. to play hardball at hardball n. 2.
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1976 N.Y. Times 18 Aug. 39/4 ‘In the big leagues of world leadership, they rarely play softball.’—John B. Connally, calling for Republican leadership of the nation in his address to the Republican National Convention.
1984 Oversight on Boilermakers, 1983: Hearings before U.S. Senate Labor & Human Resources Comm. (98th Congr., 1st. Sess.) 150 I do not think they should play softball with business. I do not think they should play softball with union leaders.
1991 D. Lucie Fashion (rev. ed.) ii. ii, in Fashion, Progress, Hard Feelings, Doing the Business 65 This is my life we're talking about. So I'm not playing softball.
2001 Australian 22 Oct. (Brisbane ed.) 32/3 (headline) Both parties play softball.
Compounds
C1. General attributive.
a. Originally and chiefly North American. In sense 1, as softball field, softball game, softball team, etc.
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1888 Centralia (Washington) Daily Sentinel 25 July The Chinese..have organised a soft ball baseball club.
1906 Harvard Graduates' Mag. Sept. 142/1 The afternoon was given up to a soft ball game.
1915 Goodland (Indiana) Herald 3 Apr. 1/5 A soft ball team will be organized for the summer.
1927 Mich. Alumnus 5 Mar. 432/2 On the first warm days of the spring the fraternity back yards are filled with soft ball players.
1930 Junior-Senior High School Clearing House 5 171/2 In the Softball League, there were 6 ninth, 5 eighth, and 4 seventh-grade teams.
1957 J. Kerouac On the Road iii. i. 180 A softball game was going on under floodlights.
1958 D. Pacey Picnic & Other Stories 135 On the softball diamond young shoe-clerks and insurance salesmen showed their circle of watching wives that they could still throw a mean curve or belt a long ball.
1977 J. Cheever Falconer 4 There was a softball field where the gallows had stood.
1995 J. Grisham Rainmaker xviii. 153 He was wielding an aluminum softball bat.
2006 F. Wilczek Fantastic Realities 444 The ‘Princeton Eulers’, a softball team I organized at the Institute for Advanced Study.
2008 J. O'Neill Netherland (2009) 10 Cricketers were not licensed to take the field until the completion of any authorized softball game.
b. In sense 2, esp. in soft-ball stage, soft-ball temperature.
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the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > preparation for table or cooking > preparing confectionery > [adjective] > stages in boiling syrup
candy higha1675
pearled1696
softball1894
1894 Ipswich Jrnl. 18 Aug. Boil up until the hot syrup is at soft ball degree.
1921 M. L. Matthews Foods & Cookery 274 Panocha... Mix sugar, milk, and salt. Boil until it reaches the ‘soft-ball’ stage.
1992 Clarksville (Texas) Times 24 Dec. 10/1 Slowly cook the sugar and milk mixture until it reaches the soft-ball temperature.
1999 L. Mason Sweets & Sweet Shops 15 Smooth fondant cream made from soft-ball syrup, grained when cool, became a favourite.
2009 B. R. Speir Come cook with Me 366 The reading you should see on the candy thermometer should be the ‘soft ball’ temperature, about 235.
2013 H. Bertinetti Bake it, don't fake It! 71 The sugar syrup is heated to what is called the soft ball stage.
C2.
softball question n. originally and chiefly North American a question that is easy to answer; an unchallenging question.
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the mind > attention and judgement > enquiry > [noun] > act or instance of > easy to answer
softball question1974
lob ball1982
1974 Xenia (Ohio) Daily Gaz. 2 Apr. 4/5 Carefully selected audiences..can be depended upon to offer softball questions.
1996 New Yorker 21 Oct. 177/3 Shriver lobbed one softball question after another at Mrs. Clinton.
2006 R. Chandrasekaran Imperial Life in Emerald City (2007) vii. 149 When the camera started rolling, Senor moderated the conversation, asking Bremer one softball question after another.
softball throw n. North American an athletic event in which a softball is thrown as far as possible.
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > athletics > [noun] > specific athletic sports other than running > throwing weight, shot, or ball
putc1300
puttingc1300
shot put1887
shot-putting1894
weight-putting1900
weight throwing1901
softball throw1930
1930 Lethbridge (Alberta) Herald 24 Sept. 11/6 Open softball throw.
1974 News & Press (Darlington, S. Carolina) 25 Apr. 11/1 Beverly Robinson won first-place in the long jump and the softball throw.
2015 Observer (La Grande, Oregon) (Nexis) 15 July Jenny Coppin..claimed the lone gold on the track and field side, winning it in the softball throw.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
softballv.
/ˈsɒf(t)bɔːl/, U.S. /ˈsɔf(t)ˌbɔl/, /ˈsɑf(t)ˌbɑl/ Originally North American.
1. transitive. To hit soft, slow shots against (an opponent) as a tactic in tennis and some other racket games. Also occasionally in baseball with reference to the use of deceptively slow pitching.
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > racket games > lawn tennis > play tennis [verb (transitive)] > strike ball in specific way
cut1875
volley1875
smash1882
lob1889
block1895
overhit1919
softball1927
1927 Bluefield (W. Va.) Daily Tel. 19 July 9/7 Chop stroking and soft balling a good opponent into submission.
1947 Negro Digest Nov. 12/1 Inning after inning he screwballed and soft balled the Dodgers into submission.
1976 Observer 2 May 23/2 Miss Mottram, who was being made to run hard and dig deep on the dusty red court to stay in the game, decided to soft-ball her, to slow the pace.
2014 MailOnline (Nexis) 28 June Murray switched to softballing him to draw some mistakes.
2. transitive. To treat in an accommodating, meek, or unassertive manner, esp. by asking unchallenging questions. Cf. hardball v. 2, softball question n. at softball n. Compounds 2.
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > racket games > lawn tennis > play tennis [verb (intransitive)] > types of stroke
volley1819
cut1875
to kill a ball1883
press1897
undercut1926
dink1939
moonball1982
softball1982
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > racket games > lawn tennis > play tennis [verb (transitive)] > play against in specific way
lob1921
ace1923
moonball1982
softball1982
1982 Colorado Springs Gaz. Tel. 1 May a16/2 The State Department quite clearly softballed the Castro issue when a blow could have been struck for greater firmness.
1994 L. King in Media Stud. Jrnl. Spring 132 We ask good questions, we're not there to kill them, we're not there to softball them.
2004 N.Y. Times (Nexis) 11 Apr. ii. 23 Perhaps I was pandering, perhaps I was softballing him with the questions, as some people say.
2014 Evening Standard (Nexis) 2 Sept. 51 It would also help if we stopped softballing Islamist terrorists like Hamas if their raison d'être is to oppose Israel.
Derivatives
ˈsoftballing adj.
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > racket games > lawn tennis > [adjective] > types of play
pat-ball1890
all-court1919
stonewall1932
softballing1940
1940 Galveston (Texas) Daily News 28 Apr. 223 Budge put on one of his best displays against the soft-balling Petersen.
1961 Times 18 May 5/2 Not only did Sangster adapt his game to the slow court and a soft-balling opponent.
2004 T. Garton Ash Free World iv. 154 The threat of American force helped persuade these near Eastern regimes to shift their position, but it certainly did no harm to have the softballing Europeans on hand for the talking.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1867
v.1927