green soap

American  

noun

1. a soap made chiefly from potassium hydroxide and linseed oil, used in treating some skin diseases.

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green soap British  

noun

1. Also called: soft soap.  med a soft or liquid alkaline soap made from vegetable oils, used in treating certain chronic skin diseases

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Etymology

Origin of green soap

First recorded in 1830–40

Example Sentences

“The loss of his arm had apparently dulled his senses,” he says of Ollie, adding, “Now he could feel no shame that green soap and water did not remove well enough to satisfy him.”

From New York Times • Jun. 10, 2011

Later on, the style was to scrub the patient off & on all day with green soap, then soak his skin the evening before the operation with a poultice of the soap.

From Time Magazine Archive

He shows me into a small bathroom where there's a bar of green soap.

From "Born Behind Bars" by Padma Venkatraman

The guards led him to a large cement bathroom with showers along the walls.They gave him a brush and a chunk of green soap.

From "The House of the Scorpion" by Nancy Farmer

High-Tech produced a bar of green soap and lathered Ugwu’s head and shaved it with a razor blade until it was smooth and soft to the touch.

From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie