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soap.

A metallic salt derived from a fatty acid, commonly used in cleaning products.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/soʊp/General-American/səʊp/Received-Pronunciation
  1. A metallic salt derived from a fatty acid, commonly used in cleaning products.

    countable · uncountable
  2. Some other substance, often a detergent or another surfactant, able to mix with both oil and water, used for cleaning.

    broadly · countable · informal · uncountable
    I tried washing my hands with soap, but the stain wouldn't go away.
    She went to the shop to buy soap, but they had run out.
  3. Money, specially when used as a bribe.

    countable · slang · uncountable
  4. A soap opera.

    countable · informal
  5. A solid masonry unit or brick reduced in depth or height from standard dimensions.

    countable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *seyb-? Proto-Germanic *saipǭ Proto-West Germanic *saipā Old English sāpe Middle English sope English soap From Middle English sope, sape, from Old English sāpe (“soap, salve”), from Proto-West Germanic *saipā, from Proto-Germanic *saipǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *seyb-, *seyp- (“to pour out, drip, trickle, strain”). Cognate with Scots saip, sape (“soap”), Saterland Frisian Seepe (“soap”), West Frisian sjippe (“soap”), Dutch zeep (“soap”), German Low German Seep (“soap”), German Seife (“soap”), Danish sæbe (“soap”), Swedish såpa (“soap”), Norwegian Bokmål såpe (“soap”), Norwegian Nynorsk såpe (“soap”), Faroese sápa (“soap”), Icelandic sápa (“soap”), Finnish saippua (“soap”), Finnish suopa (“soft soap”). Related also to Old English sāp (“amber, resin, pomade, unguent”), Latin sēbum (“tallow, fat, grease”). See seep. Latin sāpō (“soap”) is a borrowing from the Germanic.

verb/soʊp/General-American/səʊp/Received-Pronunciation
  1. To apply soap to in washing.

    transitive
    Be sure to soap yourself well before rinsing.
  2. To cover, lather, or in any other manner treat with soap, often as a prank.

    informal · transitive
    Those kids soaped my windows!
  3. To be discreet about (a topic).

    informal · transitive
  4. To flatter; to wheedle.

    dated · slang
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *seyb-? Proto-Germanic *saipǭ Proto-West Germanic *saipā Old English sāpe Middle English sope English soap From Middle English sope, sape, from Old English sāpe (“soap, salve”), from Proto-West Germanic *saipā, from Proto-Germanic *saipǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *seyb-, *seyp- (“to pour out, drip, trickle, strain”). Cognate with Scots saip, sape (“soap”), Saterland Frisian Seepe (“soap”), West Frisian sjippe (“soap”), Dutch zeep (“soap”), German Low German Seep (“soap”), German Seife (“soap”), Danish sæbe (“soap”), Swedish såpa (“soap”), Norwegian Bokmål såpe (“soap”), Norwegian Nynorsk såpe (“soap”), Faroese sápa (“soap”), Icelandic sápa (“soap”), Finnish saippua (“soap”), Finnish suopa (“soft soap”). Related also to Old English sāp (“amber, resin, pomade, unguent”), Latin sēbum (“tallow, fat, grease”). See seep. Latin sāpō (“soap”) is a borrowing from the Germanic.

noun/soʊp/General-American/səʊp/Received-Pronunciation
  1. thiopental (sodium pentothal)

    slang · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Probably an abbreviation of sodium pentothal.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.