soft spot
5
4.4
- noun
- /sɔft spɑt/
- Informal
:
punto débil
- Before you fight these bastards, you first need to know who they are, what they believe, and where their soft spots are.
Good rapport building is to find the emotional soft spots and then to just dig, dig, dig.
- Good rapport building is to find the emotional soft spots and then to just dig, dig, dig.
- And I think it touched a nerve because it was a so a soft spot for him.
- She just targets the soft spot when she's not feeling good and she wants me to feel the misery she's feeling.
Examples
-
He has had an incredible knack for finding the soft spot in the defense right past the first down line for a reception.
Blog text (1) -
That's my soft spot, and it is not nice to know I would not be there for her all the way.
Blog text (28) -
But the lapses in coverage and soft spots in the zone have been their biggest problem.
Blog text (1) -
Good rapport building is to find the emotional soft spots and then to just dig, dig, dig.
-
She was the one soft spot in Bruenor's rock-hard heart, the vulnerable chink in the king's armor.
Fiction book (1992) -
Despite carefully crafted constitutions, grand proclamations, and high-minded treaties, Latin America still has a soft spot for authoritarianism.
Academic text (2011) -
Oxy started to find some soft spots in the Cats' coverage as Oxy's QB was able to extend plays and find open receivers downfield.
Blog text (15) -
The charity has a soft spot for abandoned animals, providing them with shelter and food.
-
She finally admitted that she had a soft spot for romantic movies, often watching them alone at home.
-
Many people have a soft spot for their childhood toys, refusing to part with them even as adults.
Synonyms
156
5.1
A state of being easily harmed physically or emotionally
24
2.7
A part that others can easily attack or use against someone
5
6.6
The weakest part of something that is easy to attack or damage
5
9.9
The sensitive flesh under a fingernail or toenail
2
6.7
A weak part of a plan or organization that others can easily take advantage of
1
4.2
A place that is likely to fail or be harmed
Antonyms
How Vulnerable
Surface Forms
Morphology
soft + spot
The components 'soft' (tender, not hard) and 'spot' (place) can be compositionally combined to suggest a 'place that is tender' — a metaphorical locus of tenderness or weakness. However, the shift to meanings like 'a weakness/area of vulnerability' or 'a fondness for someone/something' requires a figurative extension that is not strictly predictable from the literal parts, so a B1 learner would only partly infer the sense without prior exposure.
Etymology
Soft spot in the sense of vulnerability comes from the idea of a part that is physically soft and easy to hurt, like a soft spot on the body someone can hit. That's why it now means a 'weak point' or place where someone or something is easily harmed.