soap

Meanings

Noun

• A substance able to mix with both oil and water, used for cleaning, often in the form of a solid bar (bar soap) or in liquid form (liquid soap), derived from fats or made synthetically.
• A metallic salt derived from a fatty acid
• Flattery or excessively complacent conversation.
• Money, specially when used as a bribe.
• A soap opera.
• A solid masonry unit or brick reduced in depth or height from standard dimensions.
• sodium pentothal

Verb

• To apply soap to in washing.
• To cover, lather or in any other form treat with soap, often as a prank.
• To be discreet about (a topic).
• To flatter; to wheedle.

Related

Similar words

• soft soap, sugar soap, soft-pedal, downplay

Origin

• From Middle English sope, sape, from Old English sāpe, from Proto-West Germanic *saipā, from Proto-Germanic *saipǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *seyb-, *seyp-.
• Cognate with Scots saip, sape, Saterland Frisian Seepe, West Frisian sjippe, Dutch zeep, German Low German Seep, German Seife, Danish sæbe, Swedish såpa, Norwegian Bokmål såpe, Norwegian Nynorsk såpe, Faroese sápa, Icelandic sápa. Related also to Old English sāp, Latin sēbum. See seep. Latin sāpō is a borrowing from the Germanic.