soap plant
Americannoun
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a Californian plant, Chlorogalum pomeridianum, of the lily family, the bulb of which was used by the Indians as a soap.
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any of various other plants having parts that can be used as a soap.
Etymology
Origin of soap plant
An Americanism dating back to 1835–45
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.
At 26, he was sent abroad to help take over a small soap plant in England, there got a good education in a diversity of problems: manufacturing, purchasing, delivery.
From Time Magazine Archive
No soap plant is, therefore, fully equipped unless it has some method whereby the glycerine is recovered and the importance of recovering this product cannot be too strongly emphasized.
From Soap-Making Manual A Practical Handbook on the Raw Materials, Their Manipulation, Analysis and Control in the Modern Soap Plant. by Thomssen, E. G.
One of them is called the soap plant.
From St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, September 1878, No. 11 by Dodge, Mary Mapes
Another variety of yucca is the amole, or soap plant.
From Arizona Sketches by Munk, J. A. (Joseph Amasa)
Each Indian supplies himself with two dried stalks of the Mexican soap plant, about three-fourths of an inch in diameter.
From Seven and Nine years Among the Camanches and Apaches An Autobiography by Johnson, Clark, M.D.
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.
