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In a soft manner.

Spurge nettle. See under Nettle.

To emit or utter by the breath; to utter softly; to whisper; as, to breathe a vow. He softly breathed thy name. Dryden. Or let the church, our mother, breathe her curse, A mother's curse, on her revolting son. Shak.

To hum or sing in a low tone; to murmur softly. Here an old grandmother was crooning over a sick child, and rocking it to and fro. Dickens.

imly; blindly; uncertainly. What fame to future times conveys but darkly down. Dryden. so softly dark and darkly pure. Byron.

Light, or softly tinted; -- said of a color; as; as, a delicate blue.

To lay open or expose to view; to cause to appear; to bring to light; to reveal. How softly on the Spanish shore she plays, Disclosing rock, and slope, and forest brown! Byron. Her lively looks a sprightly mind disclose. Pope.

Softly; sweetly; with soft, smooth, and delicate execution.

As if in a dream; softly; slowly; languidly. Longfellow.

In an effeminate or womanish manner; weakly; softly; delicately. "Proud and effeminately gay." Fawkes.

Softly; quietly; gently. [Obs.] Milton.

y. -- To give up or yield up the ghost, to die; to expire. And he gave up the ghost full softly. Chaucer. Jacob . . . yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people. Gen. xlix. 33.

To excite or make hot by action or emotion; to make feverish. Pray, walk softly; do not heat your blood. Shak.

Hospitality; a liberal and hospitable table; a supply of provisions. [Obs.] Tell me, softly and hastly, what's in the pantry Small housekeeping enough, said Phoebe. Sir W. Scott.

a well; to lower a sail or a boat; sometimes, to pull down; as, to lower a flag. Lowered softly with a threefold cord of love Down to a silent grave. Tennyson.

Greek modes or keys, the music in which was of a soft, pathetic, or voluptuous character. Softly sweet in Lydian measures, Soon he soothed his soul to pleasures. Dryden. Lydian stone, a flint slate used by the ancients to try gold and silver; a touchstone. See Basanite.

To make a low prolonged sound of grief or pain, whether articulate or not; to groan softly and continuously. Unpitied and unheard, where misery moans. Thomson. Let there bechance him pitiful mischances, To make him moan. Shak.

Very soft; -- a direction to execute a passage as softly as possible. (Abbrev. pp.)

Soft; -- a direction to the performer to execute a certain passage softly, and with diminished volume of tone. (Abbrev. p.)

lter; protection; security. In secret shadow from the sunny ray, On a sweet bed of lilies softly laid. Spenser.