- skip - Brewer’s

Softly

.

To walk softly. To be out of spirits. In Greece, mourners for the dead used to cut off their hair, go about muffled, and walk softly to express want of spirit and strength. When Elijah denounced the judgments of heaven against Ahab, that wicked king “fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly” to show that his strength was exhausted with sorrow (1 Kings xxi. 27). Isaiah says, “I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul” (xxxviii. 15). The Psalmist says, “My clothing was sackcloth … I walked as [for] a friend or brother.” The French Je vais doncement means precisely the same thing: “I go softly,” because I am indisposed, out of sorts, or in low spirits.

1

 

previous entry · index · next entry

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

previous entry · index · next entry

Sock a Corpse (To)
Socrates
Sodom
Soffarides
Soft
Soft Sawder
Soft Soap
Soft as Soap
Soft Fire makes Sweet Malt (A)
Soft Words Butter no Parsnips
Softly
Softy
Soho!
Soi-disant (French)
Soil
Soil the Milk before Using It
Sojourn
Sol (Latin)
Sol-fa
Solan Goose
Solano