soap
Americannoun
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a substance used for washing and cleansing purposes, usually made by treating a fat with an alkali, as sodium or potassium hydroxide, and consisting chiefly of the sodium or potassium salts of the acids contained in the fat.
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any metallic salt of an acid derived from a fat.
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Slang. money, especially as used for bribery in politics.
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Slang. Also soap opera.
verb (used with object)
idioms
noun
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a cleaning or emulsifying agent made by reacting animal or vegetable fats or oils with potassium or sodium hydroxide. Soaps often contain colouring matter and perfume and act by emulsifying grease and lowering the surface tension of water, so that it more readily penetrates open materials such as textiles See also detergent
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any metallic salt of a fatty acid, such as palmitic or stearic acid See also metallic soap
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slang flattery or persuasive talk (esp in the phrase soft soap )
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informal short for soap opera
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slang money, esp for bribery
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slang not possible or successful
verb
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(tr) to apply soap to
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slang
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to flatter or talk persuasively to
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to bribe
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A substance used for washing or cleaning, consisting of a mixture of sodium or potassium salts of naturally occurring fatty acids. Like detergents, soaps work by surrounding particles of grease or dirt with their molecules, thereby allowing them to be carried away. Unlike detergents, soaps react with the minerals common in most water, forming an insoluble film that remains on fabrics. For this reason soap is not as efficient a cleaner as most detergents. The film is also what causes rings to form in bathtubs.
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Compare detergent
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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soapsimple
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soapssimple
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have soapedperfect
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has soapedperfect
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am soapingprogressive
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are soapingprogressive
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is soapingprogressive
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have been soapingperfect progressive
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has been soapingperfect progressive
Past
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soapedsimple
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had soapedperfect
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was soapingprogressive
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were soapingprogressive
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had been soapingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of soap
before 1000; Middle English sope, Old English sāpe, cognate with German Seife, Dutch zeep, all < West Germanic (perhaps ≫ Latin sāpō; cf. saponify)
Explanation
Soap gets bubbly and helps cut through dirt and oil. People use soap for cleaning things like clothes, dishes, hands, and bodies. Don’t bother washing your mouth out with soap, though. It doesn’t get rid of bad words. If you ask a chemist about soap, she'll call it a surfactant, a substance that reduces the surface tension of a liquid, making it spreadable. Think of what happens when you lather up a bar of soap under running water and wash your hands with the lather. Soap is made out of natural fats or oils mixed with lye. The Old English root, sape, originally referred to the red hair dye Germanic warriors used to appear scarier.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Underlying sales for the Dove soap maker rose 5.8% on year in the quarter, compared with 3.1% in the same period last year, excluding ice-cream.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
Maybe it’s lower lighting, good hand soap in the bathroom or a beautiful bread course placed on the table before anyone has had time to wonder whether they are hungry.
From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2026
Patricia Greene, the longest-serving cast member of BBC Radio 4 soap The Archers, has died at the age of 95.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
Louise Lasser, the star of “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” Norman Lear’s satirical soap opera, has died.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
They even give us toothpaste and soap and teach us first aid.
From "Across So Many Seas" by Ruth Behar
On the March 8 episode, Oliver said he was jealous of celebrities such as Katy Perry, Snoop Dogg and Smokey Robinson who would pop up on various soaps.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026
Lohrmann has cancer and can’t work a regular schedule, so she has tried all sorts of side hustles over the years, including making soaps and beekeeping.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
The tile that they landed on has six layers of brighteners, soaps and stain and odor fighters that activate and interact with each other only when they get wet.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026
Lavender grows in thick, fragrant patches along the tour route and is infused into soaps sold at the on-site store.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 27, 2026
She buys mismatched teaspoons, percale pillowcases, colored candles, soaps on ropes.
From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri
“In the stables, the Queen’s horses were again at the ready, coats groomed, saddles and bridles soaped and stirrups polished,’’ Dimbleby wrote.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 11, 2022
Rhoda soaped a washcloth and began to scrub beneath the folds of her daughter’s skin.
From New York Times ● Jan. 21, 2015
Actually, according to the Post, he “took some large metal pans that did not appear to be dirty, soaped them up and rinsed them…as the cameras clicked and the TV cameras rolled.”
From Salon ● Oct. 16, 2012
The tune "Sticky Situation," for instance, mushrooms into the spectacle of a half-dozen boys getting their mouths soaped by moms.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 10, 2010
They soaped windows, smashed carved pumpkins, and toilet-papered bushes.
From "Spooked!" by Gail Jarrow
He worked six days a week, hosing down cars, soaping them up and vacuuming inside.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2025
Set up an assembly line from soaping and scrubbing to rinsing to drying.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 22, 2023
Doing it while a shower is running and then soaping up, thus creating a steamy-sudsy environment, would be even better for masking the odors your body produces.
From Slate ● May 25, 2020
Before eight in the evening, I was already in the shower cubicle attached to my room, soaping myself thoroughly, having thrown all my clothes in the laundry bag.
From The New Yorker ● Jan. 7, 2019
Adam and Samuel came from the wash house, their hand and faces shining with water, and Samuel’s beard was fluffy after its soaping.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
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.
