soap Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a cleansing agent made from the salts of vegetable or animal fats
  2. noun money offered as a bribe
  3. noun street names for gamma hydroxybutyrate
    Georgia home boy; grievous bodily harm; liquid ecstasy; max; easy lay; scoop; goop.
  4. verb rub soap all over, usually with the purpose of cleaning
    lather.

WordNet

Soap noun
Etymology
OE. sope, AS. sape; akin to D. zeep, G. seife, OHG. seifa, Icel. sapa, Sw. spa, Dan. sbe, and perhaps to AS. sipan to drip, MHG. sifen, and L. sebum tallow. Cf. Saponaceous.
Definitions
  1. A substance which dissolves in water, thus forming a lather, and is used as a cleansing agent. Soap is produced by combining fats or oils with alkalies or alkaline earths, usually by boiling, and consists of salts of sodium, potassium, etc., with the fatty acids (oleic, stearic, palmitic, etc.). See the Note below, and cf. Saponification. By extension, any compound of similar composition or properties, whether used as a cleaning agent or not. ✍ In general, soaps are of two classes, hard and soft. Calcium, magnesium, lead, etc., form soaps, but they are insoluble and useless.
    The purifying action of soap depends upon the fact that it is decomposed by a large quantity of water into free alkali and an insoluble acid salt. The first of these takes away the fatty dirt on washing, and the latter forms the soap lather which envelops the greasy matter and thus tends to remove it. Roscoe & Schorlemmer.
Soap transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Soaped ; present participle & verbal noun Soaping
Definitions
  1. To rub or wash over with soap.
  2. To flatter; to wheedle. Slang

Webster 1913