Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US black) a double bass.

1941

‘Digg Mee’ ‘Observation Post’ in N.Y. Age 28 June 9/7: [T]hree-piece rhythm section, drums, pie-ano, and soap box (bass fiddle).

a toady.

1887		‘’Arry on His Critics’ in Punch 17 Dec. 280/1: Stale, too, orful stale, my young josser. It’s wot all the soap-crawlers say.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

(US drugs) methamphetamine which has a pinkish tint.

2001

ONDCP Street Terms 20: Soap dope — Methamphetamine with a pinkish tint.

see sense 1 above.

(US) a fool.

1853

Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 8 Oct. n.p.: We mean Alick — not the other soap-head.

see sense 3 above.

a woman.

1883

press cutting in Ware (1909) 20/2: ’Pon our sivey, we don’t want to poke fun at chaps who’ve fallen into that barrel of treacle called love, and make up to their little lumps of soap in the operpro sort of way, and no blooming kid.

see separate entry.

(US) impoverished, bankrupt.

1848

in N.E. Eliason Tarheel Talk (1956) 286: Roberts is here doing nothing and pretty near out of soap.

1. anyone seen as dirty, e.g. a ‘New Age’ traveller.

1938		Akron Beacon Jrnl (OH) 30 Dec. 5/7: Soap Dodger Pendleton, the junkman’s son, a ‘blond, dirty resourceful brat’.
1993		Observer (London) 29 Aug. 5/8: [I]ts editors do not known what a slap-head is, have never tossed a coin to a crusty, and would not recognise a soap-dodger at a festival.
1998		N. Palmer ‘Vegan Reich’ in Home Suspect Device 23: He was still uneasy about the soap-dodgers.
2005		P. Howard Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress 3: Junkies, stoners and focking soap-dodgers eating our poached loin of Wicklow venison.
2008		Sth Florida Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL) 5 May 29/3: ‘Soap dodgers?’ ‘Sure, them one’s never take a shower. You can smell ’em’ .

2. (Aus.) a newly arrived British immigrant.

1992		Syndey Morn. Herald 7 June 35/5: Even a soap-dodger who’s a kangaroo short of a full paddock can understand.
2001		OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 soap dodger n. immigrant from the UK, anyone of recent descent.

3. a Protestant, as used in Scotland and Northern Ireland; also attrib.; thus soapdodging adj.

1993		I. Welsh Trainspotting 127: Rents’s auld boy’s a soapdodger and a Paris Bun, but he’s no really intae this sortay gig.
1994		I. Welsh ‘A Smart Cunt’ in Acid House 206: He’s a fat, ugly, weedjie, soapdodging, orange-bigoted, hun bastard.
2001		I. Welsh Glue 86: — Youse Rangers supporters, boys A big cop asked us. — Course wi are, big man, Dozo said in a soapdodger accent.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 109: Ah’ve nowt against Soapdodgers, cause ay ma faither being yin.

4. (UK prison) a prisoner who chooses to avoid showering.

1998

J. Hoskison Inside 70: Many inmates elected not to do that [i.e. take a freezing cold shower] — they were called ‘soap-dodgers’.

(US Und.) a form of confidence trick that involves the apparent wrapping of bars of soap in $20 bills; the bars are then sold to victims.

1894		Akron Dly Democrat 31 Dec. 2/4: Bain is serving a sentence of three years for [...] his soap fraud game.
1897		Courier Post (Camden, NJ) 5 May 1/5: Three young men with a shell game and a soap trick came into camp yesterday but were promptly bounced.
1938		H. Asbury Sucker’s Progress 330: Soapy Smith, who was born in Georgia in 1860 and christened Jefferson Randolph Smith, earned his nickname by his skill at a swindle known as ‘the soap game,’ which was invented in the early 1880’s by a sharper in Leadville.
1940		D. Maurer Big Con 308: soap game. A short-con game in which the grifter appears to wrap up a twenty-dollar bill with each cake of soap he is selling. It is worked with shills and cross-fire. Said to have been invented by the notorious Soapy Smith.

see separate entries.

hot gin and water, with lemon and lump sugar.

1823

‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc.

see separate entry.

a general phr. of greeting, i.e. how are things? how are you doing?; cite 1866 is specific to money.

1834		Marryat Peter Simple (1911) 20: Well, Reefer, how are you off for soap?
1836		Comic Almanack ‘Slangology’ Jan. 43: How are you off ? for soap and candles.
1842		Flash (NY) 3 Dec. n.p.: How are you all off for soap?
1845		R.S. Surtees Hillingdon Hall I 67: He had plenty of small talk for the old women [...] if their water tubs were full, how much they held? what they gave for their pig? how they were off for soap?
1854		Pictorial Pick (NY) 4 July n.p.: Old Miner. Halloo, Stranger! stand treat? ‘How are you off for soap’.
1866		Letters by an Odd Boy 45‘: How are you off for soap?’ I said to Patchley.
1882		Ulverston Mirror 28 Oct. 2/3: ‘How Are You Off for Soap>’.
1893		(con. 1830s) H. Vizetelly Glances back 103: No end of unmeaning slang phrases [...] were in circulation liming the multitude and the ‘faster’ section of society. One’s ears were incessantly assailed with such cries as ‘What a shocking bad hat!’ ‘There he goes with his eye out!’ ‘How are you off for soap?’ Flare up! and join the union,’ ‘Does your mother know you're out?’ or ‘It’s all very fine, Mr. Fergusson, but you don't lodge here.’.
1990		T. Pratchett Moving Pictures (1991) 277: ‘Tantarabobs! How’s your granny off for soap!’ he muttered triumphantly.