soapbox

American  

[sohp-boks] / ˈsoʊpˌbɒks /

noun

1. Also soap box an improvised platform, as one on a street, from which a speaker delivers an informal speech, an appeal, or political harangue.

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adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of a speaker or speech from a soapbox.

soapbox British  

/ ˈsəʊpˌbɒks /

noun

1. a box or crate for packing soap

2. a crate used as a platform for speech-making

3. a child's homemade racing cart consisting of a wooden box set on a wooden frame with wheels and a steerable front axle

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Etymology

Origin of soapbox

First recorded in 1650–60; soap + box ¹

Example Sentences

Not every man has the rhetorical gifts of Abraham Lincoln, but every one of us can avoid going straight to our political soapboxes and thereby diminishing the human tragedy before us.

From The Wall Street Journal

It’s a free soapbox that forces management to address issues they’d rather not discuss.

From The Wall Street Journal

Here are some of his best moments on that aforementioned soapbox.

From Salon

So by the time a public space opened up in 1977, the staff had a surfeit of wooden soapboxes containing jumbles of animal bones but little else.

From The Wall Street Journal

Off his soapbox, Negrete then chided his friends for making him cry before heading to a drag show.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• acknowledge
• admit
• affirm
• avow
• confess
• feign
• pretend
• proclaim
• stump