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سَوْفَ ذ , for which one also says سَفْ, (M, Mughnee, K,) rejecting the medial radical letter, (M, Mughnee,) and سَوْ, (M, Mughnee, K,) rejecting the final radical, (M, Mughnee,) and سَىْ, (M, Mughnee, K,) rejecting the final radical and changing the medial into ى for the purpose of alleviation [of the utterance], (M, Mughnee,) and accord. to the L سَا, (TA,) is a particle, (IJ, M, K,) denoting inception; (K;) or a word denoting تَنْفِيس, (Sb, S, M, K,) i. e. amplification, because it changes the aor. from the strait time, which is the present, to the ample time, which is the future; (Mughnee voce سَ [q. v.];) i. e., denoting تنفيس with respect to that which has not yet happened; (Sb, S, K;) and postponement; (M;) and is used in terrifying and threatening and promising; (IDrd, K;) or it is a word denoting promising or threatening: (Msb:) it is syn. with سَ accord. to some, or has a larger meaning than this latter accord. to others. (Mughnee.) You say, سَوْفَ أَفْعَلُ [I will do such a thing]. (Sb, S.) And one may not introduce a separating word between it and its verb, [except in a case mentioned in what follows,] because it occupies the place of the س in سَيَفْعَلُ [&c.]. (Sb, S.) [But] it is distinct from سَ by its [sometimes] having ل prefixed to it; as in [the phrase in the Kur xciii. 5], وَلَسَوْفَ يُعْطِيكَ رَبُّكَ فَتَرْضَى [And thy Lord will give thee, and thou wilt be well pleased]: (Mughnee:) in this phrase, [however,] the ل is [considered as] pre- fixed to the verb, not to the particle: (M:) or the phrase is elliptical, for لَأَنْتَ سَوْفَ يُعْطِيكَ. (Bd.) And it is distinct from سَ in this, that it is sometimes separated [from its verb] by a verb divested of government both as to the letter and the meaning; as in the saying, “ وَمَا أَدْرِى وَسَوْفَ إِِخَالُ أَدْرِى
أَقَوْمٌ آلُ حِصْنٍ أَمْ نِسَآءُ
” [And I know not, but I shall, I think, know, whether the family of Hisn be a company of men or women]. (Mughnee.) ― -b2- When you desire to make it a subst., [i. e. to use it as a subst.,] you make it to have tenween [when it is indeterminate]. (IDrd, K.) IDrd cites as an ex., “ إِِنَّ سَوْفًا وَإِِنَّ لَيْتًا عَنَآءٌ
” [Verily سَوْفَ and verily لَيْتَ are a weariness]: but one reading is إِِنَّ لَوًّا; and another, إِِنَّ لَيْتًا وإِِنَّ لَوًّا; and there is no such reading as إِِنَّ سَوْفًا. (O, TA.) One says also, فُلَانٌ يَقْتَاتُ السَّوْفَ [lit. Such a one feeds upon the word سَوْفَ]; meaning (tropical:) Such a one lives by means of things hoped for: (S, K, TA:) and in like manner, مَا قُوتُهُ إِِلَّا السَّوْفُ [lit. His food is not anything but, or other than, the word سَوْفَ]. (A, TA.) ― -b3- In the following verse of Ibn-Mukbil, cited by Sb, “ بِسَوْفٍ مِنْ تَحِيَّتِهَا ↓ لَوْ سَاوَفَتْنَا
سَوْفَ العَيُوفِ لَرَاحَ الرَّكْبُ قَدْ قَنِعَا
” [Had she put us off with a سَوْفَ as part of her greeting, with the putting off even of such as is affected with dislike, the riders had gone contented], سَوْفَ is put in the accus. case [for مُسَاوَفَةَ, i. e.] as an inf. n. with the augmentation [meaning the augmentative letters] rejected. (M.)
An Arabic-English Lexicon. London. Williams and Norgate. 1863.

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