Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Real; true.
  • adjective Soft; smooth.
  • noun Truth; reality.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Being in accordance with truth; conformed to fact; true; real.
  • Truthful; trustworthy; reliable.
  • Soothing; agreeable; pleasing; delicious.
  • noun Truth; reality; fact.
  • noun Soothsaying; prognostication.
  • noun Cajolery; fair speech; blandishment.
  • See soothe.
  • Truly; truthfully.
  • In sooth; indeed: often used interjectionally.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • Obs. or Scot. True; faithful; trustworthy.
  • rare Pleasing; delightful; sweet.
  • noun Archaic Truth; reality.
  • noun obsolete Augury; prognostication.
  • noun obsolete Blandishment; cajolery.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun archaic Truth.
  • adjective archaic True.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun truth or reality

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English sōth; see es- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English sooth, from Old English sōþ ("truth", also "true, actual, real"), from Proto-Germanic *sanþaz (“truth; true”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁sónts, *es-ont- (“being, existence, real, true”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁es-, *es- (“to be”). Akin to Old Saxon sōþ ("true"), Old High German sand ("true"), Old Norse sannr ("true"), Gothic 𐍃𐌿𐌽𐌾𐌰 (sunja, "truth"), Old English sēon ("to be"), Old English synn ("sin, guilt"; literally, "being the one guilty"). More at sin.

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Examples

  • A shrine where saints and scholars met And held aloft the torch of truth Lies smouldering 'neath fair Brabant's skies, A ruined heapwar's prize in sooth 1 The Pilates of Teutonic blood That fired the brand and flung the bomb Now wash their hands of evil deed, While all the world stands ghast and dumb.

    Belgium and the Belgians 1915

  • The Ethiopian runner hath brought word to me in sooth

    The Miracle, and Other Poems 1913

  • The Sage hath praised. 314 A fool, in sooth, grows wise

    Psalms of the Sisters Caroline Augusta Foley Rhys 1909

  • A noble king in sooth, to suffer thyself to be so imposed on!

    Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible 1871

  • Rejoined she, Speak and look thou speak soothly; for sooth is the ark of safety, and beware of lying, for it dishonoureth the liar and God-gifted is he who said: — ‘Ware that truth thou speak, albe sooth when said

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • For she in sooth had bidden me to that which might not be, — ‘An if thou swive me not forthright, as one should swive his wife,

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • She said, ‘By Allah, O good damsel, in sooth death were easier to me than what hath betided me; for it seemed as though I should be slain and no power could save me.

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • So he went and stood before her, and she said: "Though as yet thou hast had no welcome here, and no honour, it hath not entered into thine heart to flee from us; and to say sooth, that is well for thee, for flee away from our hand thou mightest not, nor mightest thou depart without our furtherance.

    Wood Beyond the World William Morris 1865

  • Sooth of byrdes) A kind of sooth saying vsed in elder tymes, which they gathered by the flying of byrds; First (as is sayd) niuented [invented] by the Thuscanes and from them deriued to the Romanes, who (as is sayd in Liuie) were so supersticiously rooted in the same, that they agreed that euery Noble man should put his sonne to the Thuscanes, by them to be brought vp in that knowledge.

    Shepheardes Calendar 1579

  • Just come into my warm embrace, rest your tired and bruised head on my shoulder while I sooth your pain and make those nasty policy-weecy people go away forever.

    London G20 Police outnumbered and attacked « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG Inspector Gadget 2009

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