• sooth (n.): truth or reality (esp. in the phrase ‘in sooth’); (adj.): 1. true or real; 2. smooth; (adv.): soothly. [Old English sōth; related to Old Norse sathr, ‘true’, Old High German sand, Gothic sunja, ‘truth’, Latin sōns, ‘guilty’, sonticus, ‘critical’]. ~ (Collins English Dictionary).

• sooth (n.; archaic): 1. truth, reality, or fact; (adj.): 2. true or real; 3. soothing, soft, or sweet; (adv.): soothly. [before 900; Middle English; Old English soth, derivative of sōth, ‘true’, cf. Old Saxon sōth, Old Norse sannr, sathr]. ~ (Webster’s College Dictionary).

• sooth (n.): sooth, ‘true’, ‘truth’, or ‘that which is’, is part of soothsayer; it is related to soothe, which once meant ‘assent to be true’; ‘say yes to’, or ‘to prove or show a fact to be true’. ~ (Farlex Trivia Dictionary).

• sooth (n.): truth or reality; in sooth: in truth; (synonym): truthfulness (the quality of being truthful). ~ (Princeton’s WordNet 3.0).

• sooth (n.): 1. (archaic or obsolete): truth; reality; fact; [e.g.]: “To say the sooth ... | My people are with sickness much enfeebled”. (Shakespeare, “Henry V.”, iii. 6. 151); “Found ye all your knights return’d, | Or was there sooth in Arthur’s prophecy?” (Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Holy Grail”); 2†. soothsaying; prognostication; [e.g.]: “’Tis inconvenient, mighty Potentate, ... | To scorne the sooth of science [astrology] with contempt”. (Robert Greene, “James IV.”, L. 1); “The soothe of byrdes by beating of their winges”. (Edmund Spenser, “The Shepheardes Calender”, December); 3†. cajolery; fair speech; blandishment; [e.g.]: “That e’er this tongue of mine, | That laid the sentence of dread banishment | On yon proud man, should take it off again | With words of sooth!” (Shakespeare, “Richard II.”, iii. 3. 136); “With a sooth or two more I had effected it. | They would have set it down under their hands”. (Ben Jonson, “Epicone”, v. 1); for sooth: see forsooth; in good sooth: in good truth; in reality; [e.g.]: “Rude, in sooth: in good sooth, very rude”. (Shakespeare, “Troilus and Cressida”, iii. 1. 60); in sooth: in truth; in fact; indeed; truly; [e.g.]: “In sothe too me the matire queynte is; | For as too hem i toke none hede”. (“Political Poems”, etc.; ed. Furnivall, p. 50); “In sooth, I know not why I am so sad; | It wearies me”. (Shakespeare, “Merchant of Venice”, i. 10). [early modern English also soothe; from Middle English sooth, sothe, soth, from Anglo-Saxon sōth, ‘the truth’, from soth, ‘true’; see sooth, adjective]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• sooth (adj.): 1. being in accordance with truth; conformed to fact; true; real (Scotch, archaic or obsolete, in this and the following use); [e.g.]: “God wot, thing is never the lasse sooth,| Thogh every wight ne may hit nat ysee”. (Geoffrey Chaucer, “Good Women”, 1. 14); “If thou speak’st false, | Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive, | Till famine cling thee; if thy speech be sooth, | I care not if thou dost for me as much”. (Shakespeare, “Macbeth”, v. 5. 40); 2. truthful; trustworthy; reliable; [e.g.]: “The soothest shepherd that e’er piped on plains”. (John Milton, “Comus”, 1. 823); “A destined errant-knight I come, | Announced by prophet sooth and old”. (Sir Walter Scott, “The Lady of the Lake”, i. 24); 3. (rare): soothing; agreeable; pleasing; delicious; [e.g.]: “Jellies soother than the creamy curd, | And lucent syrops, tinct with cinnamon”. (John Keats, 1795-1821, “Eve of St. Agnes”, xxx). [from Middle English sooth, soth, sothe, from Anglo-Saxon soth = Old Saxon soth, suoth, suot = Icelandic sannr (for *santhr) Swedish sann = Danish sand, Gothic *suths (in derivative suthjan, suthjān, ‘soothe’; cf. sunjeins, ‘true’, sunja, ‘truth’) Sanskrit sat (for *sant), ‘true’ (cf. satya, for *santya, ‘true’, Greek ετεός, ‘true’), Latin (sen(t-)s, ‘being’, in præsen(t-)s, ‘being before’, ‘present’, absen(t-)s, ‘being away’, ‘absent’; later, en(t-)s, ‘being’ (see ens, entity); originally ppr. of the verb represented by Latin esse, Greek ειναι, Sanskrit √as, ‘be’ (3d pers. pl. Anglo-Saxon synd = German sind = Latin sunt = Sanskrit santi): see am (‘are’, ‘is’), sin¹, etc.; from the Latin form are ultimately English ens, entity, essence, etc., present, absent, etc.; from the Greek, etymon, etc.; from the Sanskrit, suttee]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• sooth (adv.): 1†. truly; truthfully; [e.g.]: “He that seith most sothest sonnest ys y-blamed”. (Piers Plowman; C, iv. 439); 2. in sooth; indeed: often used interjectionally; [e.g.]: “Yes, sooth; and so do you”. (Shakespeare, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, iii. 2. 265); “He points her to the sleeping Mogg: | ‘What shall be done with yonder dog? | The captain is dead, and revenge is thine,—| The deed is signed and the land is mine; | And this drunken fool is of use no more, | Save as thy hopeful bridegroom, and sooth, | ’Twere Christian mercy to finish him, Ruth, | Now, while he lies like a beast on our floor”. (John Greenleaf Whittier, “Mogg Megone”, 1). [from Middle English sothe; from sooth, adjective]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• sooth (v.): see soothe. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• soothe (v.; pret. and pp. soothed, ppr. soothing): I. (tr.v.): 1†. to prove true; verify; confirm as truth; [e.g.]: “Ich hit wulle sothien | Ase ich hit bi write suggen”. (Layamon’s Brut (NB.: 1157-1199; West Midlands dialect of Middle English), 1, 8491); “Then must I sooth it, what euer it is; | For what he sayth or doth can not be amisse”. (Udall, “Roister Doister”, i. 1); “This affirmation of the archbishop, being greatlie soothed out with his craftie vtterance,... confirmed by the French freends”. (William Harrison, 1535-1593, “The Description of England”, 1577, ii. 1; ‘Holinshed’s Chronicles’, I.); 2†. to confirm the statements of; maintain the truthfulness of (a person); bear out; [e.g.]: “Sooth me in all I say; | There’s a main end in it”. (Philip Massinger, “The Duke of Milan”, 1623, v. 2); 3†. to assent to; yield to; humour by agreement or concession; [e.g.]: “Sooth, to flatter immoderatelie, or hold vp one in his talke, and affirme it to be true which he speaketh”. (John Baret, 1533-1580, “An Alvearie”, 1574; Skeat, p. 282, 1. 14); “Is’t good to soothe him in these contraries?” (Shakespeare, “The Comedy of Errors”, iv. 4. 82); “I am of the Number of those that had rather commend the Virtue of an Enemy than sooth the Vices of a Friend”. (James Howell, 1596-1666, “Letters”, to Captain Thomas, I. v. 11); 4. To keep in good humour; wheedle; cajole; flatter; [e.g.]: “An envious wretch, | That glitters only to his soothed self”. (Ben Jonson, “Cynthia’s Revels”, v. 3); “They may build castles in the air for a time, and sooth up themselves with phantastical and pleasant humours”. (Robert Burton, “The Anatomy of Melancholy”, p. 153); “Our government is soothed with a reservation in its favour”. (Edmund Burke, “Reflections on the Revolution in France”); 5. to restore to ease, comfort, or tranquillity; relieve; calm; quiet; refresh; [e.g.]: “Satan... | At length, collecting all his serpent wiles, | With soothing words renew’d him thus accosts”. (John Milton, “Paradise Regained”, iii. 6); “Music has charms to sooth a savage breast”. (William Congreve, Mourning Bride, 1697; ed. 1710), i. 1); “A cloud may soothe the eye made blind by blaze”. (Robert Browning, “The Ring and The Book”, II. 217); “It may be my lord is weary, that his brain is overwrought; | Soothe him with thy finer fancies, touch him with thy lighter thought”. (Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Locksley Hall”); 6. to allay; assuage; mitigate; soften; [e.g.]: “Still there is room for pity to abate | And soothe the sorrows of so sad a state”. (William Cowper, “Charity”, 1. 199); “I will watch thee, tend thee, soothe thy pain”. (Matthew Arnold, “Tristram and Iseult”, 1852, ii); 7. (rare): to smooth over; render less obnoxious; [e.g.]: “What! has your king married the Lady Grey? | And now, to soothe your forgery and his, | Sends me a paper to persuade me patience?” (Shakespeare, “3 Henry VI.”, iii. 3. 175); (synonyms): 5 and 6.; to compose, tranquilise, pacify, ease, alleviate; II, (intr.v.): 1†. to temporise by assent, concession, flattery, or cajolery; [e.g.]: “Else would not soothing glossers oil the son, | Who, while his father liv’d, his acts did hate”. (Thomas Middleton, “Father Hubbard’s Tales”, 1604); 2. to have a comforting or tranquillising influence; [e.g.]: “O for thy voice to soothe or bless!” (Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “In Memoriam A.H.H.”, 1850, lvi). [also sooth; from Middle English sothien, isothien, ‘confirm’, ‘verify’, from Anglo-Saxon ge-sōthian, ‘prove to be true’, ‘confirm’ (cf. gesōth, ‘a parasite’, ‘flatterer’, in a gloss) (= Icelandic, Swedish sanna = Danish sande, ‘verify’, Gothic suthjan, suthjōn, ‘soothe’), from sōth, ‘true’; see sooth, adjective]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• soothfast (adj.; archaic or obsolete in all uses): 1. truthful; veracious; honest; [e.g.]: “We witen that thou art sothfast, and reckist not of ony man, but thou techist the weie of God in treuthe”. (John Wycliffe, 1330-1384, Mark xii. 14); “Edie was ken’d to me... for a true, loyal, and sooth fast man”. (Sir Walter Scott, “The Antiquary”, xxv); 2. true; veritable; worthy of belief; [e.g.]: “ȝif (=if) thou woldest leue on him | That on the rode dide thi kyn, | That he is sothefast Godes sone”. (“King Horn”; E. E. T. S., p. 93); “It was a southfast sentence long ago | That hastye men shal never lacke much woe”. (Mirr. Mag. (i.e., “Mirour for Magistrates”, reprinted in the Brit. Bibl. vol. iv; Brit. Bibl. = British Bibliographer, by Sir Egerton Brydges, 1810), p. 464; Robert Nares); 3. veritable; certain; real; [e.g.]: “Ye [Love] holden regne and hous in unitee, | Ye sothfast cause of frendshipe ben also”. (Geoffrey Chaucer, “Troilus and Criseyde”, iii. 30); 4. faithful; loyal; steadfast; [e.g.]: “Thus manie yeares were spent with good and sooth fast life, | ’Twixt Arhundle that worthie knight and his approued wife”. (George Turberville, “Upon the Death of Elizabeth Arhundle” (=Dame Elizabeth Arhundle of Cornewall); Richardson). [formerly also, erroneously, southfast; from Middle English sothfast, sothfest, from Anglo-Saxon sōthfæst, from sōth, ‘sooth’, ‘true’ + fæst, ‘fast’, ‘firm’; cf. steadfast, shamefast]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• soothfastly (adv.; archaic or obsolete): truly; in or with truth (Ormulum; i.e., a twelfth-century biblical exegesis, 1. 2995); [e.g.]: “But, if I were to come, wad ye really and soothfastly pay me the siller?” (Sir Walter Scott, “Rob Roy”, 1817, xxiii). [from Middle English, sothfastlike; from soothfast + -ly²]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• soothfastness (n.; archaic or obsolete): the property or character of being soothfast or true; truth. (Geoffrey Chaucer, “Troilus and Criseyde”, iv. 1080). [from Middle English sothfastnesse, from Anglo-Saxon, sōthfæstnes, from sothfæst, ‘true’; see soothfast and -ness]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• soothful† (adj.): soothfast; true; [e.g.]: “He may do no thynk bot ryȝt, | As Mathew melez [says] in your messe, | In sothful gospel of God al-myȝt”. (“Alliterative Poems”, 1864; edited Rev. Dr. Richard Morris), 1. 497). [from Middle English sothful; from sooth + -ful]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• soothfully† (adv.): truly; verily; indeed. (“Ayenbite of Inwyt” a.k.a. ‘The Bite of Conscience’; E. E. T. S., p. 133). [from Middle English soothfully (Kentish zothrolliche); from soothful + -ly²]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• soothhead† (n.): soothness; truth. (“Ayenbite of Inwyt” a.k.a. ‘The Bite of Conscience’; E. E. T. S., p. 103). [from Middle English sothhede (Kentish zothhede); from sooth + -head]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• soothly† (adj.): true; [e.g.]: “Dear was the kindlie love which [dairy-maide] Kathrin bore | This crooked ronion [=a mangy or scabby creature], for in soothly guise | She was her genius and her counsellor: | Now cleanly milking-pails in careful wise | Bedeck each room, and much can she despise”. (William Julius Mickle, “Syr Martyn: A Poem, in the Manner of Spenser”, i. 46). [from sooth + -ly¹]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• soothly (adv.; archaic or obsolete in both uses): 1. in a truthful manner; with truth. (“Ayenbite of Inwyt” a.k.a. ‘The Bite of Conscience’; E. E. T. S., p. 74); [e.g.]: “Then view St. David’s ruin’d pile; | And, home-returning, soothly swear, | Was never scene so sad and fair!” (Sir Walter Scott, “The Lay of the Last Minstrel”, ii. 1); 2. in truth; as a matter of fact; indeed; [e.g.]: “I nam no goddesse, soothly, quod she tho”. (Geoffrey Chaucer, “Good Women”, l. 988); “Ne soothlich is it easie for to read | Where now on earth, or how, he may be found”. (Edmund Spenser, “Fairie Queene”, III. ii. 14). [from Middle English soothly, sothly, sothely, sothlich, sothliche, from Anglo-Saxon sōthlice, ‘truly’, ‘verily’, ‘indeed’, from sōth, ‘true’: see sooth]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• soothness† (n.): the state or property of being true; (a) conformity with fact; [e.g.]: “I woot wel that God makere and mayster is governor of his werk, ne never nas yit daye that mihte put me owt of the sothnesse of that sentence”. (Geoffrey Chaucer, “Boëthius”, i. prose 6); (b) truthfulness; faithfulness; righteousness; [e.g.]: “Gregorie wist this well and wilned to my soule | Sauacioun, for sothenease that he seigh in my werkes”. (Piers Plowman; B xi. 142); (c) reality; earnest; [e.g.]: “Seistow this to me | In sothnesse, or in dreem I herkne this?” (Geoffrey Chaucer, “Second Nun’s Tale”, 1. 261). [from Middle English sothnesse, sothenesse; from sooth + -ness]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• sooth-saw† (n.): a true saying; truth; [e.g.]: “Of Loves folke mo tydinges, | Both sothe-sauces and lesynges”. (Geoffrey Chaucer, “House of Fame”, 1. 676). [from Middle English sothesawe, sothsaȝe (= Icelandic sannsaga), ‘truth-telling’, ‘sooth-saying’ (cf. Middle English sothsawel, sothsaȝel, adjective, ‘truth-telling’), from Anglo-Saxon sōth, ‘truth’, ‘sooth’ + saga, ‘saying’, ‘saw’; see sooth and saw²; cf. soothsay, noun]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).

• soothsayer (n.): 1. one who tells the truth: a truthful person; [e.g.]: “The sothaier tho was lefe, | Which wolde nought the trouthe spare”. (John Gower, “Confessio Amantis” a.k.a. ‘The Lover’s Confession’, 1390, III. 164); 2. one who prognosticates; a diviner: generally used of a pretender to prophetic powers; [e.g.]: “A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March”. (Shakespeare, “Julius Caesar”, i. 2. 19); 3. a mantis or rearhorse; see cut under Mantidæ; also called camel-cricket, praying-mantis, devil’s horse, devil’s race-horse, etc.; (synonyms): 2. seer, etc.; see prophet. [formerly also, erroneously, southsayer; from Middle English sothsaier (Kentish zothziggere); from sooth + sayer¹]. ~ (Century Dictionary and Cyclopaedia).