Meanings
- dateduncountableThe female sex; womenkind.
I was a hardened vessel in such matters, having, with the exception of one painful experience of my green and tender youth, put the softer sex (I sometimes think that this is a misnomer) almost entirely out of my thoughts.
1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC1 more example
In men's clubs such celebrations were, though expiring, less uncommon; but either the natural shyness of the softer sex, or a sarcastic attitude on the part of male relatives, had denuded such women's clubs as remained (if any other did) of this their glory and consummation.
1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, volume 1, London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., page 16
Cite this entry
softer sex. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/softer%20sex
“softer sex.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/softer%20sex. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “softer sex,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/softer%20sex.
Source: softer sex on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.