What is "soap"

Soap \Soap\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Soaped; p. pr. & vb. n. Soaping.]

1. To rub or wash over with soap.

2. To flatter; to wheedle. [Slang]

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, 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.

Note: 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.

Castile soap, a fine-grained hard soap, white or mottled, made of olive oil and soda; -- called also Marseilles soap or Venetian soap.

Hard soap, any one of a great variety of soaps, of different ingredients and color, which are hard and compact. All solid soaps are of this class.

Lead soap, an insoluble, white, pliable soap made by saponifying an oil (olive oil) with lead oxide; -- used externally in medicine. Called also lead plaster, diachylon, etc.

Marine soap. See under Marine.

Pills of soap (Med.), pills containing soap and opium.

Potash soap, any soap made with potash, esp. the soft soaps, and a hard soap made from potash and castor oil.

Pumice soap, any hard soap charged with a gritty powder, as silica, alumina, powdered pumice, etc., which assists mechanically in the removal of dirt.

Resin soap, a yellow soap containing resin, -- used in bleaching.

Silicated soap, a cheap soap containing water glass (sodium silicate).

Soap bark. (Bot.) See Quillaia bark.

Soap bubble, a hollow iridescent globe, formed by blowing a film of soap suds from a pipe; figuratively, something attractive, but extremely unsubstantial.

This soap bubble of the metaphysicians.
--J. C. Shairp.

Soap cerate, a cerate formed of soap, olive oil, white wax, and the subacetate of lead, sometimes used as an application to allay inflammation.

Soap fat, the refuse fat of kitchens, slaughter houses, etc., used in making soap.

Soap liniment (Med.), a liniment containing soap, camphor, and alcohol.

Soap nut, the hard kernel or seed of the fruit of the soapberry tree, -- used for making beads, buttons, etc.

Soap plant (Bot.), one of several plants used in the place of soap, as the Chlorogalum pomeridianum, a California plant, the bulb of which, when stripped of its husk and rubbed on wet clothes, makes a thick lather, and smells not unlike new brown soap. It is called also soap apple, soap bulb, and soap weed.

Soap tree. (Bot.) Same as Soapberry tree.

Soda soap, a soap containing a sodium salt. The soda soaps are all hard soaps.

Soft soap, a soap of a gray or brownish yellow color, and of a slimy, jellylike consistence, made from potash or the lye from wood ashes. It is strongly alkaline and often contains glycerin, and is used in scouring wood, in cleansing linen, in dyehouses, etc. Figuratively, flattery; wheedling; blarney. [Colloq.]

Toilet soap, hard soap for the toilet, usually colored and perfumed.

1580s, from soap (n.). Related: Soaped; soaping.

Old English sape "soap, salve" (originally a reddish hair dye used by Germanic warriors to give a frightening appearance), from Proto-Germanic *saipon "dripping thing, resin" (cognates: Middle Low German sepe, West Frisian sjippe, Dutch zeep, Old High German seiffa, German seife "soap," Old High German seifar "foam," Old English sipian "to drip"), from PIE *soi-bon-, from root *seib- "to pour out, drip, trickle" (cognates: Latin sebum "tallow, suet, grease").\n

\nRomans and Greeks used oil to clean skin; the Romance language words for "soap" (cognates: Italian sapone, French savon, Spanish jabon) are from Late Latin sapo "pomade for coloring the hair" (first mentioned in Pliny), which is a Germanic loan-word, as is Finnish saippua. The meaning "flattery" is recorded from 1853.

n. 1 (label en uncountable) a substance able to mix with both oil and water, used for cleaning, often in the form of a solid bar or in liquid form, derived from fats or made (l en synthetically) 2 (label en chemistry) a metallic (l en salt) derived from a (l en fatty acid) 3 a (l en flattery) or excessively (l en complacent) conversation 4 (label en slang) (l en money), specially when used for (l en bribing) purposes 5 (label en countable informal) (short of soap opera English) 6 (label en countable informal) (short of soaper English) vb. 1 (label en transitive) To apply soap to in washing. 2 (label en transitive informal) To cover, lather or in any other form treat with soap, often as a prank. 3 (label en transitive informal) To be discreet about (a topic). 4 (label en slang dated) To flatter; to wheedle.

v. rub soap all over, usually with the purpose of cleaning [syn: lather]

1. n. a cleansing agent made from the salts of vegetable or animal fats

2. money offered as a bribe

3. street names for gamma hydroxybutyrate [syn: scoop, max, liquid ecstasy, grievous bodily harm, goop, Georgia home boy, easy lay]

"Soap" is a song by Melanie Martinez, featured on her debut studio album, Cry Baby. The song was released July 10, 2015, along with a music video the same day. It was released as the lead radio single of her album Cry Baby, being set to impact Alternative radio outlets according to Warner Music.

Soap is a surfactant cleaning compound used for personal or other cleaning.

Soap may also refer to:

• Sugar soap, a material used for cleaning surfaces before repainting
• Soap opera, ongoing, episodic work of fiction on TV or radio
• Soap (TV series), a 1970s sitcom
• S.O.A.P. (band), a Danish pop music duo
• Sons of All Pussys, a Japanese band often abbreviated S.O.A.P.
• SOAP (originally an acronym for Simple Object Access Protocol), a protocol specification in computer networks
• Spectrometric Oil Analysis Program, a method for testing the oil in aircraft engines for the concentration of critical metals to identify wear of engine parts.
• Symbolic Optimal Assembly Program, an assembly language for the IBM 650 computer
• SOAP note, a method of documentation used in medical charts
• Short Oligonucleotide Analysis Package, a bioinformatics package used for the assembly and analysis of DNA sequences
• Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program, for medical students who were not initially matched with U.S. residencies by the National Resident Matching Program
• Sgt. John "Soap" MacTavish, fictional soldier from the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series
• Hotel Soap is an animated cartoon character in the Dr. Tran animated series of internet shorts
• An abbreviation for Snakes on a Plane, a 2006 film
• "Soap" (Melanie Martinez song)

In chemistry, soap is a salt of a fatty acid. Consumers mainly use soaps as surfactants for washing, bathing, and cleaning, but they are also used in textile spinning and are important components of lubricants.

Soaps for cleansing are obtained by treating vegetable or animal oils and fats with a strongly alkaline solution. Fats and oils are composed of triglycerides; three molecules of fatty acids attach to a single molecule of glycerol. The alkaline solution, which is often called lye (although the term "lye soap" refers almost exclusively to soaps made with sodium hydroxide), brings about a chemical reaction known as saponification.

In this reaction, the triglyceride fats first hydrolyze into free fatty acids, and then these combine with the alkali to form crude soap: an amalgam of various soap salts, excess fat or alkali, water, and liberated glycerol (glycerin). The glycerin, a useful by-product, can remain in the soap product as a softening agent, or be isolated for other uses.

Soaps are key components of most lubricating greases, which are usually emulsions of calcium soap or lithium soap and mineral oil. These calcium- and lithium-based greases are widely used. Many other metallic soaps are also useful, including those of aluminium, sodium, and mixtures of them. Such soaps are also used as thickeners to increase the viscosity of oils. In ancient times, lubricating greases were made by the addition of lime to olive oil.

Soap is an American sitcom that originally ran on ABC from September 13, 1977 until April 20, 1981. The show was created as a night-time parody of daytime soap operas, presented as a weekly half-hour prime time comedy. Similar to a soap opera, the show's story was presented in a serial format and included melodramatic plot elements such as alien abduction, demonic possession, murder, and kidnapping. In 2007 it was listed as one of Time magazine's "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME," and in 2010, the Tates and the Campbells ranked at number 17 in TV Guide's list of "TV's Top Families."

The show was created, written, and executively produced by Susan Harris, and also executively produced by Paul Junger Witt (Harris' future husband) and Tony Thomas. Each returning season was preceded by a 90-minute retrospective of the previous season. Two of these retrospectives were made available on VHS in 1994, but were not included on any DVD collections.

The show aired 85 episodes over the course of four seasons. Eight of these (including the final four) aired as one-hour episodes during the original run on ABC. These hour-long episodes were later split in two, yielding 93 half-hour episodes for syndication. Like most sitcoms of the era, Soap was videotaped, but this coincidentally helped further its emulation of the daytime soap opera format, as most such productions were also videotaped.

All episodes are currently available on region 1 DVD in four separate box sets. There is a box set of season 1 on region 2 DVD. In the past, the series has rerun on local syndicated channels as well as on cable on Comedy Central and TV Land. It ran on over-the-air television on Antenna TV, until December 30, 2012. As of Spring 2016, it is shown on IFC.

The show starred Katherine Helmond and Cathryn Damon as sisters/matriarchs of their own families. The cast also included three former soap opera actors. Robert Mandan (Chester Tate) had previously appeared on Search for Tomorrow as a leading man for Mary Stuart, and Donnelly Rhodes (Dutch Leitner) had played the first husband of Katherine Chancellor on The Young and the Restless. Arthur Peterson, Jr. ("The Major") played Rev. John Ruthledge in the radio version of Guiding Light.

Soap is the brand name of shoes made for grinding similar to aggressive inline skating. They were introduced by Chris Morris of Artemis Innovations Inc. with the brand name "Soap" in 1997. They have a plastic concavity in the sole, which allows the wearer to grind on objects such as pipes, handrails, and stone ledges. The company and their product rapidly gained popularity through fansites, a video game, and live demonstrations. Soap fell to legal vulnerabilities and was readministrated twice, eventually bringing the brand to Heeling Sports Limited. The act of grinding on rails and ledges specifically using soap shoes has been dubbed "soaping", with the "soaper" being the one performing said act.