soft-soap

soft-soap
soft-soaps, soft-soaping, soft-soaped
If you soft-soap someone, you flatter them or tell them what you think they want to hear in order to try and persuade them to do something.

[V n] The government is not soft-soaping the voters here.


English dictionary. 2008.

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  • Soft soap — Soap Soap, n. [OE. sope, AS. s[=a]pe; akin to D. zeep, G. seife, OHG. seifa, Icel. s[=a]pa, Sw. s?pa, Dan. s?be, and perhaps to AS. s[=i]pan to drip, MHG. s[=i]fen, and L. sebum tallow. Cf. {Saponaceous}.] A substance which dissolves in water,… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Soft soap — Soft Soft (s[o^]ft; 115), a. [Compar. {Softer} (s[o^]ft [ e]r); superl. {Softest}.] [OE. softe, AS. s[=o]fte, properly adv. of s[=e]fte, adj.; akin to OS. s[=a]fto, adv., D. zacht, OHG. samfto, adv., semfti, adj., G. sanft, LG. sacht; of… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • soft´-soap´er — soft soap, 1. a liquid or semiliquid soap. 2. Informal. flattery: »He and I are great chums, and a little soft soap will go a long way with him (Thomas Hughes). soft soap «SFT SOHP, SOFT », transitive verb. 1. Informal. to flatter; cajole. 2 …   Useful english dictionary

  • Soft soap — can refer to one of the following: * a general purpose soap that is liquid or easily soluble, as opposed to a hard soap which will only dissolve sparingly. * a hygiene product made exclusively from natural oils. In this case soft prefix is a… …   Wikipedia

  • soft-soap — v [T] BrE informal to say nice things to someone in order to persuade them to do something ▪ Don t think you can soft soap me! >soft soap n [U] …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • soft soap — soft′ soap′ n. 1) inf persuasive talk; flattery 2) the semifluid soap produced when potassium hydroxide is used in the saponification of a fat or an oil • Etymology: 1625–35 soft′ soap′, v.t. v.i …   From formal English to slang

  • soft soap — ► NOUN 1) a semi fluid soap. 2) informal persuasive flattery. ► VERB (soft soap) informal ▪ use flattery to persuade …   English terms dictionary

  • soft-soap — verb transitive INFORMAL to be nice to someone when you want them to do something for you ╾ ,soft soap noun uncount …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • soft soap — n soap of a semifluid consistency made principally with potash and having various medical uses (as in the treatment of skin diseases) specif GREEN SOAP …   Medical dictionary

  • soft-soap — [sôft′sōp΄] vt. Informal to flatter soft soaper n …   English World dictionary

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