soft shoe

• softshoe, soft-shoe

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soft shoe (uncountable)

1. (performing arts) A kind of tap dancing performed in soft-soled shoes, popular in vaudeville.
   • 1966 Jan. 15, "Sunday (TV listings)," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, p. 19 (retrieved 5 Oct 2008):

     Between Mr. O'Connor and Mr. Newley there's a delightful exhibition of the dances and their origin dating gack a few hundred years, from the clog to the buck, the wing, and the buck and wing, and on to the old soft shoe and more.

   • 2018 December 12, Charles Bramesco, “A Spoonful of Nostalgia Helps the Calculated Mary Poppins Returns Go Down”, in The A.V. Club‎, archived from the original on 24 May 2019:

     Like the technically astounding and spiritually hollow production numbers, however, [Emily] Blunt can't situate the sentimental energy in a deeper foundation. Her excellence gets left in a sort of vacuum when paired with the fully extraneous train wreck of a visit with Meryl Streep as kooky Poppins cousin Topsy or some discomfiting soft shoe from a creaky Dick Van Dyke.

2. (idiomatic) A speech, explanation, sales pitch, or other set of remarks delivered in a restrained or conciliatory manner in order to persuade, distract, or otherwise influence someone.
   • 2001 Nov. 26, Adam Piore, "Red, White And What A Deal!," Newsweek (retrieved 1 May 2014):

     Is the salesman's soft-shoe appropriate in a time of national mourning?

Often used in the expression the old soft shoe.

soft shoe (not comparable)

1. (usually hyphenated) Of or pertaining to this kind of dancing.
2. (idiomatic) Casual, low-key, easy-going.
   • 1958 Oct. 6, "Mellow Man in Charge," Time (retrieved 5 Oct 2008):

     Occasionally criticized for his soft-shoe approach (e.g., he urged the President to avoid a public squabble with Joe McCarthy), Persons nonetheless won many a legislator over to the Administration side.

soft shoe (third-person singular simple present soft shoes, present participle soft shoeing, simple past and past participle soft shoed)

1. To perform a dance of this kind.