soap
UK /səʊp/ · US /soʊp/ noun, verb
Forms soaps soaping soaped sope
- noun (chemistry) A metallic salt derived from a fatty acid, commonly used in cleaning products.
- noun (countable, uncountable, informal, by extension, mineralogy) Some other substance, often a detergent or another surfactant, able to mix with both oil and water, used for cleaning. “I tried washing my hands with soap, but the stain wouldn't go away.”
- noun (slang) Money, specially when used as a bribe.
- noun (countable, informal) A soap opera.
- noun (countable) A solid masonry unit or brick reduced in depth or height from standard dimensions.
- verb (transitive) To apply soap to in washing. “Be sure to soap yourself well before rinsing.”
- verb (transitive, informal) To cover, lather, or in any other manner treat with soap, often as a prank. “Those kids soaped my windows!”
- verb (transitive, informal) To be discreet about (a topic).
- verb (slang, dated) To flatter; to wheedle.
- noun (slang) thiopental (sodium pentothal)
Synonyms
soft-soap soft-pedal sugar soap downplay butter up cajole sweet-talk blandander blandish sweeten fast-talk canoodle carny coax collogue croodle engle fleech honey around honey up scoop max liquid ecstasy grievous bodily harm goop Georgia home boy easy lay lather
Etymology
From Middle English sope, sape, from Old English sāpe (“soap, salve”), from Proto-West Germanic *saipā, from Proto-Germanic *saipǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *seyb-, *seyp- (“to pour out, drip, trickle, strain”).
Cognate with Scots saip, sape (“soap”), Saterland Frisian Seepe (“soap”), West Frisian sjippe (“soap”), Dutch zeep (“soap”), German Low German Seep (“soap”), German Seife (“soap”), Danish sæbe (“soap”), Swedish såpa (“soap”), Norwegian Bokmål såpe (“soap”), Norwegian Nynorsk såpe (“soap”), Faroese sápa (“soap”), Icelandic sápa (“soap”), Finnish saippua (“soap”), Finnish suopa (“soft soap”). Related also to Old English sāp (“amber, resin, pomade, unguent”), Latin sēbum (“tallow, fat, grease”). See seep. Latin sāpō (“soap”) is a borrowing from the Germanic.
Probably an abbreviation of sodium pentothal.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A substance which dissolves in water, thus forming a lather, and is used as a cleansing agent. Soap is produced by combining fats or oils with alkalies or alkaline earths, usually by boiling, and consists of salts of sodium, potassium, etc., with the fatty acids (oleic, stearic, palmitic, etc.). See the Note below, and cf. Saponification. By extension, any compound of similar composition or properties, whether used as a cleaning agent or not.
- verb To rub or wash over with soap.
- verb To flatter; to wheedle. [Slang]
Etymology [OE. sope, AS. sape; akin to D. zeep, G. seife, OHG. seifa, Icel. sapa, Sw. s, Dan. s, and perhaps to AS. sipan to drip, MHG. sifen, and L. sebum tallow. Cf. Saponaceous.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “soap”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details