softball
nounEtymology 1926: soft + ball. Compare hardball.
1
Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports A game similar to baseball but played with a larger and softer ball which can be thrown overhand or underhand.
- This will give you someone with whom you can trade softball complaints, which any veteran game-goer will tell you is the key to a good time.1996, Andrew Heller, Come Heller High Water, →ISBN, page 55:
2
Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports The ball used to play the sport.
3
A question designed to be easy to answer.
By analogy; also attibutive; by analogy; also attibutive
- a softball interview
- Each man got his share of softballs on Friday night. But for 90 minutes in a dressed-up basketball arena at Washington University, the two candidates were also forced to address the kind of questions they get rarely if ever on the campaign trail: from voters who doubted them and maybe did not even like them very much.2004 September 10, James Bennett, “In a Disguised Gym, Softballs and Political Drama”, in The New York Times:
1 more example
- He [Ben Shapiro] wielded a particularly pointed arrow at Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host, for engaging in what he said was “an act of moral imbecility,” by recently airing a softball interview with Nick Fuentes, an avowed antisemite.2025 December 20, Richard Fausset, Ken Bensinger, quoting Ben Shapiro, “Turning Point’s Annual Gathering Turns Into a Gripefest”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:
- Synonyms
- diamond ball, indoor baseball, kittenball, mush ball, playground ball, pumpkin ball, town ball
- Derived terms
- softballer