English Explanatory Dictionary

no soap

English dictionary entry

Meanings

phrase
  1. It is (or was) a failure.

Word forms

no soap

Etymology

The phrase appears, with no clear meaning, in a 1755 Samuel Foote nonsense prose poem, "The Grand Panjandrum". In the U.S., soap took on the meaning of money (see OED), and so no soap was a denial of money, say in response to a request for some.

Synonyms

no joy nothing doing
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