"no soap" meaning in All languages combined

See no soap on Wiktionary

Phrase [English]

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. Head templates: {{head|en|phrase}} no soap
  1. (idiomatic, slang, dated) It is (or was) a failure. Wikipedia link: Samuel Foote Tags: dated, idiomatic, slang Synonyms: no joy, nothing doing
    Sense id: en-no_soap-en-phrase-yZFR-bxS Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries
{
  "etymology_text": "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.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "no soap",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1942, Rex Stout, Black Orchids, Farrar & Rinehart:",
          "text": "I went back down to the men's room on the second floor and yelled his name in front of the private apartments, but no soap.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1953, Saul Bellow, chapter 25, in The Adventures of Augie March, New York: Viking Press, →OCLC:",
          "text": "I waited for his assistance but it didn't come. He let me trail for I don't know how long. I hollered and cried, cursed, rocked the boat. No soap.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1973, Robert B. Parker, The Godwulf Manuscript, Houghton Mifflin:",
          "text": "I rang. Nothing happened. I rang again and leaned on it. No soap.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1983 March, Bruce Jay Friedman, “Detroit Abe”, in Esquire:",
          "text": "Still and all, after weighing the pluses and minuses of Smooth's offer, he came, to the only possible conclusion for a civilized man—no soap.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1992, Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House, Random House:",
          "text": "And he tried again—Lou always persisted—but no soap.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "It is (or was) a failure."
      ],
      "id": "en-no_soap-en-phrase-yZFR-bxS",
      "links": [
        [
          "failure",
          "failure"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, slang, dated) It is (or was) a failure."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "no joy"
        },
        {
          "word": "nothing doing"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "dated",
        "idiomatic",
        "slang"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Samuel Foote"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "no soap"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "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.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "phrase"
      },
      "expansion": "no soap",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English dated terms",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English phrases",
        "English slang",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1942, Rex Stout, Black Orchids, Farrar & Rinehart:",
          "text": "I went back down to the men's room on the second floor and yelled his name in front of the private apartments, but no soap.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1953, Saul Bellow, chapter 25, in The Adventures of Augie March, New York: Viking Press, →OCLC:",
          "text": "I waited for his assistance but it didn't come. He let me trail for I don't know how long. I hollered and cried, cursed, rocked the boat. No soap.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1973, Robert B. Parker, The Godwulf Manuscript, Houghton Mifflin:",
          "text": "I rang. Nothing happened. I rang again and leaned on it. No soap.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1983 March, Bruce Jay Friedman, “Detroit Abe”, in Esquire:",
          "text": "Still and all, after weighing the pluses and minuses of Smooth's offer, he came, to the only possible conclusion for a civilized man—no soap.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1992, Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House, Random House:",
          "text": "And he tried again—Lou always persisted—but no soap.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "It is (or was) a failure."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "failure",
          "failure"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, slang, dated) It is (or was) a failure."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "no joy"
        },
        {
          "word": "nothing doing"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "dated",
        "idiomatic",
        "slang"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Samuel Foote"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "no soap"
}

Download raw JSONL data for no soap meaning in All languages combined (2.1kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-03-02 using wiktextract (db0bec0 and 633533e). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.