[SOAP sb. Cf. Du. zeepzieder, G. seifensieder.]

1

  1.  One who boils (the ingredients of) soap; a soap-maker, soap-manufacturer.

2

1594.  Plat, Jewell-ho., 77. A wise, wealthie, and ancient Sopeboyler, dwelling without Algate.

3

1651.  French, Distill., iii. (1653), 78. Quench them in the strongest Lixivium that Sope-boylers use.

4

1661.  Evelyn, Fumifugium (1825), 220. Brewers, diers,… salt and sope-boylers, and some other private trades.

5

1712.  Addison, Spect., No. 488, ¶ 1. I have a Letter from a Soap-boiler, who condoles with me [etc.].

6

1752.  Foote, Taste, II. A Bristol farthing, coin’d by a soap-boiler to pay his journeymen, in the scarcity of cash.

7

1838.  Lytton, Alice, VI. iv. The whisper spread among bankers and brewers and soap-boilers and other rich people.

8

1879.  Cassell’s Techn. Educ., I. 331/2. There is an increasing demand for it [sc. caustic soda] on the part of bleachers and soap boilers.

9

  transf.  1877.  Bagehot, Biogr. Studies (1881), 316. Some of the middle-aged men of business, the ‘soap-boilers,’ as the London world disrespectfully calls them.

10

  b.  In collocations (cf. SOAPER 1 c).

11

1707.  Mortimer, Husb. (1721), I. 291. Take Soap-boylers Liquor or Lee which is very sharp and strong.

12

1815.  J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 451. The common bottle-glass is … made with … soap-boiler’s waste ashes.

13

1834–6.  Encycl. Metrop. (1845), VIII. 475/2. Green Bottle Glass … is commonly made of soap-boiler’s waste and sand.

14

  2.  A pot used for boiling soap; a soap-pan.

15

1863.  W. C. Baldwin, Afr. Hunting, vi. 152. The only utensil we could hit upon that was big enough to cook him in was a soap-boiler, which he just fitted.

16

1875.  Knight, Dict. Mech., 2233/1. A soap-boiler having a large pipe which receives the vapors rising from the kettle.

17