soft-soap
- Informal. to cajole; flatter.
- to apply soft soap to.
- to use soft soap in washing.
Origin of soft-soap
soft soap
- Informal. persuasive talk; flattery: to use soft soap to get one's way.
- the semifluid soap produced when potassium hydroxide is used in the saponification of a fat or an oil.
Origin of soft soap
Related Words for soft-soap
urge, activate, prompt, coax, engender, breed, promote, motivate, produce, persuade, convince, cause, generate, mislead, misrepresent, deceive, request, push, solicit, pressExamples from the Web for soft-soap
Historical Examples of soft-soap
And takes by the nose and belathers, with soft-soap, tremendously.
Now hes trying to soft-soap the hermit into letting him have a hunt for it.
Tom Fairfield in CampAllen Chapman
Do you think you can soft-soap me as easy as you did the boys?
Friar TuckRobert Alexander Wason
After all, soft-soap has its virtues; it is just the thing for the aged!
The Champagne StandardMrs. John Lane
We clamour for soft-soap; we demand it at the point of the bayonet.
The Champagne StandardMrs. John Lane
soft soap
- med another name for green soap
- informal flattering, persuasive, or cajoling talk
- informal to use such talk on (a person)
Word Origin and History for soft-soap
soft soap
Flattery: “Mary asked the boss to stop giving her a lot of soft soap about her performance and to start leveling with her like any other employee.”
Idioms and Phrases with soft-soap
soft soap
Flattery, cajolery, as in She's only six but she's learned how to get her way with soft soap. This colloquial expression alludes to liquid soap, likening its slippery quality to insincere flattery. Its figurative use was first recorded in 1830.