a. [SOFT a. 29.] Having soft or gentle eyes; tender-eyed.
1735. Pope, Ep. Arbuthnot, 272–5/14.
| Curst be the Verse, how well soe’er it flow, | |
| That tends to make one worthy Man my foe, | |
| Give Virtue scandal, Innocence a fear, | |
| Or from the soft-ey’d Virgin steal a tear! |
1777. R. Potter, Æschylus, Supplicants, 109. Soft-ey’d humanity dwells here.
1804. Times, 6 Oct., 3/3. Miss C. ‘a soft-eyed cherub’ of Bodmin.
1859. Ld. Lytton, Wanderer (ed. 2), 239. She is meekness itself, my soft-eyed little cousin.
1896. Mamie Dickens, My Father as I recall him, 82. The latter a soft-eyed, gentle, good-tempered St. Bernard.
