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Glite Dictionary
😏 Insincere praise 🧴 A mild soap
soft soap

soft soap

1 3.7
A mild soap made from plant oils for sensitive skin
  • noun
  • /sɔft soʊp/
: jabón suave
  • After consulting the online guide, I decided to use a natural soft soap made from olive oil.

Examples

  • The dermatologist recommended a soft soap to help with my dry skin condition.

  • I have not made homemade soap for years, and the recipe I used was for a soft soap using rendered lard and lye.

    Blog text (18)

  • For other sensitive folk, I am a new soapmaker from Australia and found an allergy-free soft soap recipe in Alan Hayes' book.

    Blog text (18)

  • For a gentle cleaning routine, it's best to choose a soft soap that contains no harsh chemicals.

Synonyms

liquid soap
vssoft soap
5 1.0

A liquid used to wash hands or the body

is made from vegetable oils and sometimes used to treat certain skin conditions
green soap
vssoft soap
1 3.4

A soft cleaning product made from plant oils for washing and treating skin

is used mainly for treating certain skin conditions rather than general cleaning

How Liquid

soft soap
1 3.7
bar soap
22 1.0

Surface Forms

soft soap singular
soft soaps plural

Morphology

soft + soap

The sense 'insincere flattery' is not a straightforward combination of 'soft' (not harsh) and the literal cleaning substance 'soap'; there is no direct compositional logic that yields the metaphorical meaning. This is a lexicalized metaphor (compare the verb 'to soft-soap') and would not be predictable to an average B1 learner who knows the constituent words, so it is opaque.

Etymology

Soft soap is literally soft + soap: a gentle, often liquid soap made from vegetable oils and used on delicate skin. So the name just means 'gentle soap'.