Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916.
Soft
Soft as the satin fringe that shades the eyelids of thy fragrant maids.
—Thomas Bailey Aldrich
Soft as the broken solar beam,
That trembles in the solar stream.
—Anacreon
Soft as misted star.
—Mary Louisa Anderson
Soft and creamy as a charlotte russe.
—Anonymous
Soft and supple as lady’s glove.
—Anonymous
Soft as a Dartmoor bog.
—Anonymous
Soft as a flute.
—Anonymous
Soft as a government job.
—Anonymous
Soft as a jelly fish.
—Anonymous
Soft as a shadow.
—Anonymous
Soft as foot can fall.
—Anonymous
Soft as marshmallows.
—Anonymous
Soft as mush.
—Anonymous
Soft as pudding.
—Anonymous
Soft as sad music.
—Anonymous
Soft as showers that fall on April meads.
—Anonymous
Soft as soap.
—Anonymous
Soft as the evening wind murmuring among willows.
—Anonymous
Soft as the hands of indolence.
—Anonymous
Soft as the murmurs of a virgin’s sigh.
—Anonymous
Delicately soft as the sand that has been trod on by dainty seraphs.
—Anonymous
Soft as the snow on the sea.
—Anonymous
Soft as zephyr of a summer sky.
—Anonymous
Softly as a milk tooth leaving a baby’s gum.
—Anonymous
Softly as on ice that will scarcely bear.
—Anonymous
Softly … like the footfalls of departed spirits.
—Anonymous
Soft as silk in her touch.
—Arabian Nights
Soft as threaded pearls.
—Arabian Nights
Softer than zephyr’s wing.
—Arabian Nights
Soft as the breath of even.
—Harriet Auber
Thy sweet words drop upon the ear as soft as rose leaves on a wall.
—Philip James Bailey
Softly sublime like lightnings in repose.
—Philip James Bailey
Soft as the sunlight.
—William Cox Bennett
Softly like a stream of oil.
—William Browne
Soft voice as a laughing dream.
—R. D. Blackmore
Soft as the breeze flitting over the flowers.
—R. D. Blackmore
Soft as the dew on flowers of spring,
Sweet as the hidden drops that swell their honey-throated chalicing.
—Robert Bridges (English)
Soft as Muses’ string.
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Soft as a mother’s kiss.
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Soft as a silent hush.
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Softly, as the last repenting drops
Of a thunder-shower.
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Soft as a sofa.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Soft as wool.
—Robert Burton
Soft as the murmurs of a virgin’s sigh.
—William Byrd
Soft as the callow cygnet in its nest.
—Lord Byron
Soft as the gentler breathing of the lute.
—Lord Byron
Soft as the houri strings his long entrancing note.
—Lord Byron
Soft as the melody of youthful days.
—Lord Byron
Soft as the memory of buried love.
—Lord Byron
Soft as the unfledged birdling when at rest.
—Lord Byron
Soft as the eyes of a girl.
—Wilfred Campbell
Soft as a bed of roses blown.
—Thomas Carew
Soft as duffel.
—Thomas Carlyle
Soft as sunset.
—Thomas Carlyle
Soft as snow that falls on snow.
—Alice Cary
Soft as a bank of moss.
—Robert Cawdray (A Treasurie or Store-house of Similies, 1600)
Soft as love.
—James Cawthorn
Soft as silence.
—William Ellery Channing
Soft as the breath of morn in bloom of spring.
—Thomas Chatterton
Soft as the cooing of the turtle dove.
—Thomas Chatterton
Soft as the moss where hissing adders dwell.
—Thomas Chatterton
Softe as the sommer flowrets.
—Thomas Chatterton
As soft as honey-dew.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Soft as the passing wind.
—William Cowper
Soft as the breath of a sleeper.
—Isa Craig
Soft, his accents fill, like voices of departed friends heard in our dreams, or music in the air, when night-spirits warble their magic minstrelsy.
—Richard Cumberland
Soft as pity.
—George Darley
Soft as the murmurs of a weeping spring.
—Sir William Davenant
As soft and sleek as girlish cheek.
—Austin Dobson
Soft as a baby’s breath.
—Julia C. R. Dorr
Soft as spirit’s sigh.
—Julia C. R. Dorr
Soft as summer.
—Ernest Dowson
Soft as prayer.
—Ernest Dowson
Skin as soft as Naples silk.
—Michael Drayton
Soft as Lempster wool.
—Michael Drayton
Soft and caressing as a melody.
—Alexandre Dumas, père
Soft as a whisper.
—George Du Maurier
Soft … like a whispered dream of sleeping music.
—George Eliot
Soft as pattering drops that fall from off the eaves in fancy dance when clouds are breaking.
—George Eliot
Soft and fluid as a cloud on the air.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
Soft as the songs of some shy hidden bird
From the low fields of woodlands nightly heard.
—Frederick William Faber
Soft as the voice of summer’s evening gale.
—William Falconer
Soft as love.
—William Falconer
Soft as the breath of distant flutes at hours
When silent evening closes up the flowers.
—John Gay
Soft as when Venus stroked the beard of Jove.
—John Gay
Soft as the stringed harp’s moan.
—Gerald Griffin
Soft as is the falling thistle downe.
—Joseph Hall
Cheeks, soft as September’s rose
Blushing but faintly on its faltering stem.
—Paul Hamilton Hayne
Soft as silkworms.
—Stephen Hawes
Soft as the whisper shut within a shell.
—William Ernest Henley
Soft as jelly.
—Thomas Heywood
Soft as sleep.
—Hesiod
Soft as pity, and as blest.
—Aaron Hill
Soft as upper air.
—Aaron Hill
Soft as rain.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes
As soft as swan’s down.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes
Soft as the moonbeams when they sought Endymion’s fragrant bower.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes
Soft as a flute.
—Thomas Hood
Soft as flowers.
—Thomas Hood
Sounds upon the air most soothing soft,
Like humming bees busy about the brooms.
—Thomas Hood
Soft as a dream of beauty.
—Richard Hovey
Soft as the division in the wool of a sheep.
—Victor Hugo
Soft as love’s first word.
—Jean Ingelow
Soft … as cob-webs.
—Ben Jonson
Soft as cream.
—Jean Ingelow
Soft as Memnon’s harp at morning.
—John Keble
Soft as imprison’d martyr’s deathbed calm.
—John Keble
Soft as the face of maid.
—Frederic L. Knowles
Soft as a dying violet-breath.
—Sidney Lanier
Soft and still, like birds half hidden in a nest.
—Henry W. Longfellow
Soft as velvet.
—John Lydgate
Soft as silke.
—John Lyly
Soft as the swan-down where Summer sleeps.
—George Mac-Henry
Soft as the sighings of the gale, that wakes the flowery year.
—David Mallet
Soft as dew-drops when they settle
In a fair flower’s open petal.
—Philip B. Marston
Soft as light-fall on unfolding flowers.
—Gerald Massey
Soft and thick as a feather bed.
—Guy de Maupassant
Soft as a kiss.
—Joaquin Miller
Soft as moonlight.
—Mary Russell Mitford
Soft as evening o’er the ocean,
When she charms the waves to rest.
—James Montgomery
Soft as in moments of bliss long ago.
—Thomas Moore
Soft as lightning in May.
—Thomas Moore
Soft as the back of a swan.
—Thomas Nash
Soft as angels.
—Thomas Otway
Soft as a baby’s cheek.
—Thomas Nelson Page
Soft as twin-violets moist with early dew.
—Andrew Park
Her voice … soft as Zephyr sighs on morning lily’s cheek.
—Robert Pollok
Soft as yielding air.
—Matthew Prior
Soft as a pillow.
—William B. Rands
Soft as angels’ wings.
—James Whitcomb Riley
Soft as a sunny shadow
When day is almost done.
—Christina Georgina Rossetti
Soft as music’s measure.
—Christina Georgina Rossetti
Soft as spring.
—Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Soft as the gleam after sunset
That hangs like a halo of grace
Where the daylight had died in the valley.
—A. J. Ryan
Soft as air.
—William Shakespeare
Soft as sinews of the new-born babe.
—William Shakespeare
Soft as the dove’s down.
—William Shakespeare
Soft as the parasite’s silk.
—William Shakespeare
Soft as young down.
—William Shakespeare
Soft as an Incarnation of the Sun.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley
Soft as sleep.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley
Soft as the thoughts of budding love.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley
Softer than the West wind’s sigh.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley
Soft as the wild duck’s tender young, that floats on Avon’s tide.
—William Shenstone
Soft as a spirit prayer.
—Seba Smith
Soft as a man with a dead child speaks.
—Carl Stanburg
Whispering soft, like the last low accents of an expiring saint.
—Laurence Sterne
Soft like the waxe, each image shall receive.
—Earl of Stirling
Soft as pap.
—Jonathan Swift
Softer than the dawn.
—Jonathan Swift
Soft and listless as the slumber-stricken air.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne
Soft as a low long sigh.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne
Soft as lip is soft to lip.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne
Soft as at noon the slow sea’s rise and fall.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne
Soft … as desire that prevails and fades.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne
Soft as fire in dew.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne
Soft as hate speaks within itself apart.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne
Soft as heaven the stream that girdles hell.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne
Soft as lips that laugh.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne
Soft as o’er her babe the smile of Mary.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne
Soft as a weak wind blows.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne
Soft as sleep sings in a tired man’s ear.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne
Soft as snow lights on her snow-soft flesh.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne
Soft as swan’s plumes are.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne
Borne soft as the babe from the bearing-bed.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne
Soft …
As the clouds and beams of night.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne
Soft as the least wave’s lapse in a still small reach.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne
Soft as the loosening of wound arms in sleep.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne
Soft
As thoughts of beauty sleeping.
—Arthur Symons
Soft, as Heaven’s angelic messenger might touch the lips of prayer, and make them blest.
—Bayard Taylor
Soft as lonely maiden’s thoughts on him she loves.
—Esaias Tegner
There is sweet music here that softer falls
Than petals from blown roses on the grass.
—Alfred Tennyson
Softer than oil.
—Old Testament
Soft as satin.
—William Makepeace Thackeray
Soft as a sleeping cat.
—Theocritus
Soft as the nightingale’s harmonious woe,
In dewy even-tide, when cowslips drop
Their sleepy heads, and languish in the breeze.
—William Thomson
Soft as the blowbell.
—Thomas Tickell
Soft, like summer night.
—Mark Twain
Soft as a peacock steps.
—Fazio degli Uberti
The air as soft as lovers’ jest.
—Emanuel Von Giebel
Soft as summer breeze.
—Samuel Ward
Soft as the wind of spring-tide in the trees.
—Rosamund Marriott Watson
Soft as fall of thistle-down.
—John Greenleaf Whittier
Soft as the flow of an infant’s breath.
—John Greenleaf Whittier
Soft as the landscape of a dream.
—John Greenleaf Whittier
Soft as a lady’s hand.
—Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Soft as a cloud.
—William Wordsworth