Meaning & use
soft soap
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountableinformaldisapproving
Flattering talk meant to win someone over or make an unwelcome truth easier to accept.
Grammar: Not used with an or a plural: a lot of soft soap, not a soft soap.
Patterns
- give someone soft soap
- a load of soft soap
He handed the client a load of soft soap about delays, but never gave a firm date.
I don't need any soft soap; just tell me whether I got the job.
The brochure was full of soft soap and short on facts.
verbtransitiveinformaldisapproving
To flatter someone or speak smoothly to them so that they will agree or not be angry.
Grammar: Takes an object: soft-soap the manager.
Patterns
- soft-soap someone
- soft-soap someone into doing something
Don't try to soft-soap me; I know the report was late.
She soft-soaped her uncle into lending her the car.
The salesman soft-soaped us for an hour before mentioning the price.
Word forms
| third person singular | soft-soaps |
|---|---|
| past tense | soft-soaped |
| past participle | soft-soaped |
| -ing form | soft-soaping |
Common combinations
- a load of soft soap
- The speech was a load of soft soap and changed nothing.
- spare me the soft soap
- Spare me the soft soap and give me the real numbers.
- dish out soft soap
- Politicians often dish out soft soap before an election.
- soft-soap a customer
- Staff were told not to soft-soap a customer who complained.
- soft-soap someone into agreeing
- He tried to soft-soap her into agreeing to the deal.
Synonyms and how they differ
- flattery
- Flattery is the general word for excessive praise, while soft soap stresses that the praise is smooth, calculated and meant to get something.
- sweet talk
- Sweet talk is more casual and often used for charming someone personally, whereas soft soap sounds more like a manipulative sales pitch.
- blarney
- Blarney is charming, playful nonsense, so it sounds friendlier than soft soap.
- butter up
- Butter up is a phrasal verb for the action of flattering someone, and it is a little more common in everyday speech than soft-soap.
Opposites
Word family
- soft-soaper noun
- a person who flatters in this way (rare)
- soft-soaping noun
- the act of flattering to win favor
Commonly confused: soft soap or soft sell?
soft soap vs soft sell
A soft sell is a gentle, low-pressure way of selling. Soft soap is insincere flattery, not a sales method.
Practice
The manager gave us a lot of ___ about how much the company valued us, but there was no pay rise.
Choose one answer.
Soft soap is empty flattery. Soft sell describes a gentle selling style, and hard cash and plain facts do not fit the idea of insincere praise.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “soft soap”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.