softship

English

Etymology

From soft +‎ -ship, modelled after hardship.

Noun

softship (countable and uncountable, plural softships)

1. (rare, often humorous) A situation marked by ease, comfort, or convenience.
   • 1877, William Mattieu Williams, Through Norway with ladies - Page 2:

     In 1856 I courted hardship, went out of my way in search of it, selected the North because hardship was most attainable there ; now my object is exactly reversed, it is not hardship, but (I should like to say "softship," but dare not) the utmost […]

   • 1920, Jared Sparks, Edward Everett, James Russell Lowell, The North American Review - Volume 212 - Page 774:

     Until you have mended a tire on a muddy road at dusk and turned a crank for five reels of the most deadly movies, you have an entirely misleading notion as to the softships of relief work. I can think of no work of theirs more satisfying to the worker herself […]

   • 1943, Raymond Tift Fuller, Now that We Have to Walk: Exploring the Out-of-doors - Page 29:

     Yet not a hardship only, because a sizeable sector of living in, on, and around motoring was softship and little else.

   • 2012, Bruce Wagner, I'll Let You Go: A Novel - Page 239:

     […] hardships he so gracefully endured amid numbered leave-takings from the softship of his father's customized cabin were notable and should be recorded for future invalids. real and imaginary. Exactly who was part of this airborne sodality?

Antonyms

• hardship

Anagrams

• fishpots, shopfits