No. 6,358 in Chinese
手软
"Reluctant to act harshly or decisively; lenient or hesitant."
In a sentence
他抢劫的时候毫不手软。
He showed no mercy while robbing.
The term '手软' in this instance means 'merciful' or 'hesitating' during an act; here, it is used negatively to imply the person was merciless and decisive in their action.
看到那个小猫的眼神，她不禁手软了。
Seeing the kitten's eyes, she couldn't help but hesitate.
The expression '手软' here means 'hesitating to act harshly,' and it conveys a sense of compassion or sympathy compelling a pause in one's actions.
他在比赛中下手不手软，表现得很坚定。
He acted decisively in the competition, showing determination.
In this conversational usage, '手软' contrasts decisiveness; '不手软' is used to describe someone acting firmly and without hesitation or mercy.
Hear it in real podcasts
The recording above is a synthetic voice. Hear how people say “手软” in actual Chinese podcasts.
Find “手软” in podcastsLearn it from shows you like
LangTurbo plays Chinese podcasts with a transcript and the English under every line. Tap a word like this one and it tells you what it means right there. For iPhone, iPad and Android.
Learning English?
LangTurbo plays real English podcasts with every line translated into 中文, and tells you what any word means in that sentence. For iPhone, iPad and Android.
Chinese books and courses on Amazon (an affiliate link: a purchase through it supports this site).