Adjacent Words

Soap definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SOAP, n. [L. sapo.] A compound of oil and alkali, or oil and earth, and metallic oxyds; usually, a compound of oil and vegetable alkali or lye; used in washing and cleansing, in medicine, etc.
SOAP, v.t. To rub or wash over with soap.
SOAPHERRY TREE, n. A tree of the genus Sapindus.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a cleansing agent made from the salts of vegetable or animal fats
2: money offered as a bribe
3: street names for gamma hydroxybutyrate [syn: soap, scoop, max, liquid ecstasy, grievous bodily harm, goop, Georgia home boy, easy lay] v
1: rub soap all over, usually with the purpose of cleaning [syn: soap, lather]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English sope, from Old English s?pe; akin to Old High German seifa soap Date: before 12th century 1. a. a cleansing and emulsifying agent made usually by action of alkali on fat or fatty acids and consisting essentially of sodium or potassium salts of such acids b. a salt of a fatty acid and a metal 2. soap opera II. transitive verb Date: 1585 1. to rub soap over or into 2. flatter

Britannica Concise

Organic compound, salt of a fatty acid, usually stearic acid (with 18 carbon atoms) or palmitic acid (with 16 carbon atoms). The source may be any vegetable oil or animal fat. Soaps are emulsifying agents commonly used for cleaning; they have long been made from lye and fat. Detergents are entirely synthetic and may or may not be soaps. Soaps of metals heavier than sodium are not very soluble; the curdy precipitate made by soap in hard water is the calcium or magnesium salt of the fatty acid in the soap. Heavy-metal soaps are used in lubricating greases, as gel thickeners, and in paints. Napalm is an aluminum soap.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 a cleansing agent that is a compound of fatty acid with soda or potash or (insoluble soap) with another metallic oxide, of which the soluble kinds when rubbed in water yield a lather used in washing. 2 colloq. = soap opera. --v.tr. 1 apply soap to. 2 scrub or rub with soap. Phrases and idioms: soap flakes soap in the form of thin flakes, for washing clothes etc. soap opera a broadcast drama, usu. serialized in many episodes, dealing with sentimental domestic themes (so called because orig. sponsored in the US by soap manufacturers). soap powder powdered soap esp. with additives. Derivatives: soapless adj. soaplike adj. Etymology: OE sape f. WG

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Soap Soap, n. [OE. sope, AS. s[=a]pe; akin to D. zeep, G. seife, OHG. seifa, Icel. s[=a]pa, Sw. s?pa, Dan. s?be, and perhaps to AS. s[=i]pan to drip, MHG. s[=i]fen, and L. sebum tallow. Cf. Saponaceous.] 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. Note: In general, soaps are of two classes, hard and soft. Calcium, magnesium, lead, etc., form soaps, but they are insoluble and useless. The purifying action of soap depends upon the fact that it is decomposed by a large quantity of water into free alkali and an insoluble acid salt. The first of these takes away the fatty dirt on washing, and the latter forms the soap lather which envelops the greasy matter and thus tends to remove it. --Roscoe & Schorlemmer. Castile soap, a fine-grained hard soap, white or mottled, made of olive oil and soda; -- called also Marseilles, or Venetian, soap. Hard soap, any one of a great variety of soaps, of different ingredients and color, which are hard and compact. All solid soaps are of this class. Lead soap, an insoluble, white, pliable soap made by saponifying an oil (olive oil) with lead oxide; -- used externally in medicine. Called also lead plaster, diachylon, etc. Marine soap. See under Marine. Pills of soap (Med.), pills containing soap and opium. Potash soap, any soap made with potash, esp. the soft soaps, and a hard soap made from potash and castor oil. Pumice soap, any hard soap charged with a gritty powder, as silica, alumina, powdered pumice, etc., which assists mechanically in the removal of dirt. Resin soap, a yellow soap containing resin, -- used in bleaching. Silicated soap, a cheap soap containing water glass (sodium silicate). Soap bark. (Bot.) See Quillaia bark. Soap bubble, a hollow iridescent globe, formed by blowing a film of soap suds from a pipe; figuratively, something attractive, but extremely unsubstantial. This soap bubble of the metaphysicians. --J. C. Shairp. Soap cerate, a cerate formed of soap, olive oil, white wax, and the subacetate of lead, sometimes used as an application to allay inflammation. Soap fat, the refuse fat of kitchens, slaughter houses, etc., used in making soap. Soap liniment (Med.), a liniment containing soap, camphor, and alcohol. Soap nut, the hard kernel or seed of the fruit of the soapberry tree, -- used for making beads, buttons, etc. Soap plant (Bot.), one of several plants used in the place of soap, as the Chlorogalum pomeridianum, a California plant, the bulb of which, when stripped of its husk and rubbed on wet clothes, makes a thick lather, and smells not unlike new brown soap. It is called also soap apple, soap bulb, and soap weed. Soap tree. (Bot.) Same as Soapberry tree. Soda soap, a soap containing a sodium salt. The soda soaps are all hard soaps. Soft soap, a soap of a gray or brownish yellow color, and of a slimy, jellylike consistence, made from potash or the lye from wood ashes. It is strongly alkaline and often contains glycerin, and is used in scouring wood, in cleansing linen, in dyehouses, etc. Figuratively, flattery; wheedling; blarney. [Colloq.] Toilet soap, hard soap for the toilet, usually colored and perfumed.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Soap Soap, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Soaped; p. pr. & vb. n. Soaping.] 1. To rub or wash over with soap. 2. To flatter; to wheedle. [Slang]

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(soaps, soaping, soaped) 1. Soap is a substance that you use with water for washing yourself or sometimes for washing clothes. ...a bar of lavender soap. ...a large packet of soap powder. ...a soap bubble. N-MASS 2. If you soap yourself, you rub soap on your body in order to wash yourself. She soaped herself all over. VERB: V pron-refl 3. A soap is the same as a soap opera. (INFORMAL) N-COUNT

Easton's Bible Dictionary

(Jer. 2:22; Mal. 3:2; Heb. borith), properly a vegetable alkali, obtained from the ashes of certain plants, particularly the salsola kali (saltwort), which abounds on the shores of the Dead Sea and of the Mediterranean. It does not appear that the Hebrews were acquainted with what is now called "soap," which is a compound of alkaline carbonates with oleaginous matter. The word "purely" in Isa. 1:25 (R.V., "throughly;" marg., "as with lye") is lit. "as with _bor_." This word means "clearness," and hence also that which makes clear, or pure, alkali. "The ancients made use of alkali mingled with oil, instead of soap (Job 9:30), and also in smelting metals, to make them melt and flow more readily and purely" (Gesenius).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

sop (borith; the King James Version sope): Borith is a derivative of bor, "purity," hence, something which cleanses or makes pure. Soap in the modern sense, as referring to a salt of a fatty acid, for example, that produced by treating olive oil with caustic soda, was probably unknown in Old Testament times. Even today there are districts in the interior of Syria where soap is never used. Cooking utensils, clothes, even the body are cleansed with ashes. The ashes of the household fires are carefully saved for this purpose. The cleansing material referred to in Jer 2:22 (compare Septuagint at the place, where borith is rendered by poia = "grass") and Mal 3:2 was probably the vegetable lye called in Arabic el qali (the origin of English alkali). This material, which is a mixture of crude sodium and potassium carbonates, is sold in the market in the form of grayish lumps. It is produced by burning the desert plants and adding enough water to the ashes to agglomerate them. Before the discovery of Leblanc's process large quantities of qali were exported from Syria to Europe.

For washing clothes the women sprinkle the powdered qali over the wet garments and then place them on a flat stone and pound them with a wooden paddle. For washing the body, oil is first smeared over the skin and then qali rubbed on and the whole slimy mixture rinsed off with water. Qali was also used in ancient times as a flux in refining precious metals (compare Mal 3:2). At the present time many Syrian soap-makers prefer the qali to the imported caustic soda for soap-making.

In Susanna (verse 17) is a curious reference to "washing balls" (smegmata).

James A. Patch

Moby Thesaurus

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