The Collaborative International Dictionary
Soaproot \Soap"root`\, n. (Bot.) A perennial herb ( Gypsophila Struthium) the root of which is used in Spain as a substitute for soap.
Wiktionary
n. A perennial herb ((taxlink Gypsophila struthium species noshow=1)) whose root was formerly used as a substitute for soap.
Usage examples of "soaproot".
It was too early in the year to find lathering soaproot, and the countryside was too open for horsetail fern, which grew in shady damp places.
Pidi had found a clump of soaproot, and sliced off sections with his knife.
Just around the bend she had found soaproot growing, and went to pull some roots.
She rinsed the roots, scooped water into a depression, and pounded the soaproot to release the rich sudsy saponin.
He was grinning as he walked along the stream behind Ayla, and after she dug the soaproot and went back up to the cave, he flung himself into the water with a tremendous splash, feeling better about himself than he had for a long time.
Finding a round stone she could hold easily in her hand, Iza pounded the soaproot with water in a saucerlike depression of a large flattish rock near the stream.
Ayla was nervous as she raced to dig up soaproot, horsetail fern, and red-rooted pigweed, and her stomach was a bundle of knots while she waited anxiously for boiling water from one of the cooking fires to extract the insecticidal element from the fern.
She wet the soaproot and scrubbed herself, then stood in the channel and scooped water over her soapy body.
It felt smooth and slippery, like good soaproot, but more, and my hands got so clean!
Lathering herself a limb at a time with the piece of soaproot she carried in her medicine pouch, she thoroughly filthied four bowls of water, even before she washed her hair.
He took a very deep breath as I submerged his hand in the bowl, but it contained only water, soaproot, and a very small amount of alcohol, and he let the breath go with a sigh.