1. Smeared with soap; covered with soap-suds or lather.
1610. G. Fletcher, Christ’s Vict., II. lix. Such watry orbicles young boyes doe blowe Out from their sopy shells.
a. 1635. Randolph, Conceited Pedlar, Wks. 1875, I. 47. And were’t not better to embrace this pretty shambles for beauty … than to tumble our soapy laundresses?
1747–96. Mrs. Glasse, Cookery, xiii. 188. Take great care the bag or cloth be very clean, not soapy.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, vii. The door was opened, but nothing came in except a soapy arm.
transf. 1778. Pryce, Min. Cornub., Gloss., Soapy Heads, the joints of stones, smeared with a saponaceous slippery soil.
2. Impregnated with soap; containing soap in solution.
1721. Bailey, Suds, the soapy Liquor in which Clothes are washed.
1826. S. Cooper, First Lines Surg. (ed. 5), 23. The caustic fixed alkalies, triturated with pus, combine with it into a soapy fluid.
1882. Garden, 21 Jan., 48/3. The leaves ought to be carefully sponged over with soapy water.
3. Of the nature of soap; having the soft or greasy feel of soap; soap-like.
a. 1722. Lisle, Husb. (1757), 30. Their chalk is of a fat soapy kind, and they call it marle.
1799. [A. Young], Agric. Linc., 10. They have rich loams, soapy and tenacious.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 465. Talc … is soft and soapy to the touch.
1857. Miller, Elem. Chem., Org., xii. § 1. 686. Oleophosphoric Acid,… in combination with soda,… forms a soapy compound.
4. Of appearance, feel, etc.: Resembling that of soap; suggestive of soap.
1732. Arbuthnot, Rules of Diet, in Aliments, etc. 301. Such Substances as are of a soapy Nature.
1803. Med. Jrnl., IX. 493. When boiled in it a long time it gives it a soapy appearance.
1838. T. Thomson, Chem. Org. Bodies, 38. Most of them have a slightly soapy feel.
1843. Penny Cycl., XXVI. 261/1. Lustre soapy. Feel greasy.
1852. C. W. Hoskyns, Talpa, i. (1854), 2. A suspicious kind of sound from the share and coulter, which I may describe by the word ‘soapy.’
b. Having a taste of soap.
1892. Walsh, Tea, 87. The lower grades are frequently ‘soapy’ or ‘mousey’ in favor.
5. slang. a. Ingratiating, suave, unctuous.
1865. Pall Mall Gaz., 28 Oct., 5/2. But why, sir, … do people call him [Bp. Wilberforce] Soapy Sam?
1910. Blackw. Mag., Feb., 182/2. He had once been famous for his soapy manners: now he was as rough as a Highland stot.
b. Of fits: Simulated by chewing soap.
1886. Daily News, 13 Dec., 5/4. He is known professionally as the ‘King of the Soapy Fits Trick.’
6. Comb., as soapy-looking, -mannered, -tailed.
a. 1845. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Ser. III. Wedding Day (1905), 435. Don’t interfere with their soapy-tail’d pigs.
1853. Ure, Dict. Arts, etc. (ed. 4), II. 458. Soapy-looking compounds with resins and wax.
1890. Pall Mall Gaz., 8 April, 6/3. The solemn soapy-mannered ‘dispenser.’
