firm vs soft

firm

adj
  • Durable, rigid (material state) 

  • Fixed (in opinion). 

  • Insistent upon something, not accepting dissent. 

  • Steadfast, secure, solid (in position) 

verb
  • To become firm; stabilise. 

  • To make firm or strong; fix securely. 

  • To improve after decline. 

  • To make compact or resistant to pressure; solidify. 

  • To shorten (of betting odds). 

  • To select (a higher education institution) as one's preferred choice, so as to enrol automatically if one's grades match the conditional offer. 

noun
  • A criminal gang, especially based around football hooliganism. 

  • A business partnership; the name under which it trades. 

  • A business enterprise, however organized. 

soft

adj
  • Smooth and flexible; not rough, rugged, or harsh. 

  • Of a ferromagnetic material; a material that becomes essentially non-magnetic when an external magnetic field is removed, a material with a low magnetic coercivity. (compare hard) 

  • Expressing gentleness or tenderness; mild; conciliatory; courteous; kind. 

  • Requiring little or no effort; easy. 

  • Voiced; sonant; lenis. 

  • Voiceless. 

  • Gentle. 

  • Lacking strength or resolve; not tough, wimpy. 

  • Low in dissolved calcium compounds. 

  • Easily giving way under pressure. 

  • Emulated with software; not physically real. 

  • Not likely to cause addiction. 

  • Not containing alcohol. 

  • Weak in character; impressible. 

  • Not harsh or offensive to the sight; not glaring or jagged; pleasing to the eye. 

  • Gentle in action or motion; easy. 

  • Incomplete, or temporary; not a full action. 

  • Effeminate. 

  • Of a market: having more supply than demand; being a buyer's market. 

  • softcore. 

  • Palatalized. 

  • Not bright or intense. 

  • Physically or emotionally weak. 

  • Foolish. 

  • Agreeable to the senses. 

  • Having a slight angle from straight. 

  • Made up of nonparallel rays, tending to wrap around a subject and produce diffuse shadows. 

  • Quiet. 

noun
  • A soft sound or part of a sound. 

  • A soft or foolish person; an idiot. 

How often have the words firm and soft occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )