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soft soap
1noun
- Informal. persuasive talk; flattery:
to use soft soap to get one's way.
- the semifluid soap produced when potassium hydroxide is used in the saponification of a fat or an oil.
soft-soap
2[ sawft-sohp, soft- ]
verb (used with object)
- Informal. to cajole; flatter.
- to apply soft soap to.
verb (used without object)
- to use soft soap in washing.
soft soap
verb
- informal.to use such talk on (a person)
soft soap
- Flattery: “Mary asked the boss to stop giving her a lot of soft soap about her performance and to start leveling with her like any other employee.”
Word History and Origins
Origin of soft soap1
Origin of soft soap2
Idioms and Phrases
Flattery, cajolery, as in She's only six but she's learned how to get her way with soft soap . This colloquial expression alludes to liquid soap, likening its slippery quality to insincere flattery. Its figurative use was first recorded in 1830.Example Sentences
Or pour down the throat a pint bottle full of soft soap, mixed with sufficient hot water to make it run freely.
You don't need to soft soap me, Senator; save that for your office seekers.
If the trees be already attacked, adding soft soap and sulphur to the water will destroy them.
Heat six gallons of water and put in three and a half pounds of soft soap and a half gallon of clean refuse oil.
He describes his progress through it as like travelling through soft soap.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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