soap
Americannoun
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soaps
plural
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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)
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soaps,
present (3rd person singular)
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soaped,
past participle, past
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soaping
present participle
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:
“All of a sudden you had an added soap opera narrative of leaving climbers behind to die; people putting Sherpa climbers in danger.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 20, 2026
Kasey, who is not an actor, dreams of appearing on “Neighbours,” a canceled Australian soap opera.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
I listened to that thing over and over again, until I spilled a bottle of soap in my tape deck and ruined it.
From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2026
Julie Hesmondhalgh, will be known to audiences Up North especially as Roy Cropper's wife Hayley in the soap Coronation Street, between 1998 and 2014.
From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2026
With a POP, the bubble burst like it were made of soap, and Seven fell gently onto the cushiony sofa.
From "Witchlings" by Claribel A. Ortega
In those studies, the researchers developed approaches for converting other types of plastic waste into surfactants used in products such as soaps and detergents.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 29, 2026
The soaps and fragrances retailer logged higher profit in the quarter after its digital business returned to growth for the first time in five years.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
Far from seeming like a steely leader in a rigorous era, he instead recalls all those gentle, soft, pouty-lipped dreamboats who pop up interchangeably in young-adult soaps on the streaming services.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
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
She passed through a street that smelled of linens and soaps, one full of strung-up meats and animal hides, and yet another filled with artisans and pottery work.
From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray
“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
Then the barber used some of them pointy killing-looking scissors to cut the cap’n’s chin and muttonchops down afore he soaped ’em up and shaved ’em off.
From "The Journey of Little Charlie" by Christopher Paul Curtis
Set up an assembly line from soaping and scrubbing to rinsing to drying.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 22, 2023
Songul Yucesoy carefully washes her dishes, soaping the plates and cutlery before rinsing off the bubbles and laying them out to dry.
From BBC ● Mar. 5, 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
He enumerates some pleasures of life on the outside — sleeping on comfortable sheets, soaping up a loofah sponge in the shower.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2020
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
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