soft shadow
- noun
:
sombra suave
- The normal hypocrisy of everyday life somehow seemed out of place in that quiet street with those soft shadows gathering around us like bedclothes.
Examples
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Inside, the room was cheery, the bedside lamp throwing soft shadows against the far wall.
Fiction book (1993) -
She poured a glass of wine and stood by the back door, admiring the golden light and soft shadows across the pasture.
Fiction book (1992) -
The tangle of silver floated, glowing, in midair, its lines blurred in the soft shadows.
Fiction book (1993) -
The warm glow of the sunset cast soft shadows across the garden, creating a serene atmosphere.
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As the sun set, soft shadows danced over the sand, making the beach look magical.
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The artist captured the soft shadows of the trees, giving the painting a gentle and calming effect.
Synonyms
544
1.0
A dark shape on the ground made when something blocks light
How Bright
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a diffused, gentle shadow' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'soft' (not harsh, subdued) with 'shadow' (a dark area caused by blocked light). This compositional adjective+noun pattern is common across languages and follows straightforward semantic modification, so a B1 learner who knows both words would reliably infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Soft shadow comes from the simple image of light made gentle by clouds or a wide lamp shade. When light is spread out, the shadow has no hard lines and looks soft, so the term means a shadow that is 'gentle and blurred'.