soft soap

Related to soft soap: Hard soap

soft soap

1. noun Flattering, cajoling talk meant to persuade someone, obtain something, or achieve a particular outcome. Don't let his soft soap get the better of you—he's only interested in himself. You think you can get whatever you want with a bit of soft soap, but some things in life have to be earned.
2. To persuade someone about something or persuade someone to do something, especially through the use of charm, flattery, or cajolery. Sometimes hyphenated. That weasel Mike is always trying to soft-soap the boss to get things done the way he wants. You'll never soft soap grandma, Jake—she's too shrewd for that.
See also: soap, soft
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

soft soap

 
1. flattering talk; sweet talk. I don't mind a little soft soap. It won't affect what I decide, though. Don't waste my time with soft soap. I know you don't mean it.
2. (Usually soft-soap.) to attempt to convince someone (of something) by gentle persuasion. We couldn't soft-soap her into it. Don't try to soft-soap her. she's an old battle-ax.
See also: soap, soft
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

soft soap

Flattery, cajolery, as in She's only six but she's learned how to get her way with soft soap. This colloquial expression alludes to liquid soap, likening its slippery quality to insincere flattery. Its figurative use was first recorded in 1830.
See also: soap, soft
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

soft soap

persuasive flattery.
The underlying idea is of soft soap (literally a type of semi-fluid soap) being lubricative and unctuous.
See also: soap, soft
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

soft soap

1. n. flattering talk; sweet talk. I don’t mind a little soft soap. It won’t affect what I do, though.
2. tv. to attempt to convince someone (of something) by gentle persuasion. Don’t try to soft soap her. She’s an old battle-ax.
See also: soap, soft
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions

soft soap

Flattery. The analogy here is to a slithery, unctuous substance (which describes soft soap), and it has been drawn since the first half of the nineteenth century. “To see them flattering and soft soaping me all over,” wrote John Neal (John Beedle’s Sleigh Ride, ca. 1840). A contemporary synonym, now obsolete, was soft sawder, a substance used for soldering. It was still used in the 1940s but is seldom heard today.
See also: soap, soft
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • cajole
  • cajole (one) into (something)
  • cajole into
  • bummer
  • high
  • high, wide, and handsome
  • wear (one's) apron high
  • cajole out of
  • cajole (one) out of (something)
  • fire and brimstone
References in periodicals archive
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We heard the same soft soap from David Cameron and remember how that turned out.
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YESTERDAY'S SOLUTIONS WEE THINKER ACROSS: 7 Avocado 9 Renal 10 Ditty 11 Loudest 12 Too 13 Negligee 16 Splatter 17 Via 19 Leave go 21 Larva 22 Space 23 Science DOWN: 1 Mandate 2 Soft soap 3 Lady 4 Croupier 5 Once 6 Plato 8 Obligations 13 Neatened 14 Environs 15 Canapes 18 A-list 20 Afar 21 Loin QUICKIE ACROSS: 1 Shepherdess 8 Coo 9 Log 11 Rummage 12 Shoal 13 Ape 14 Pro 15 Erosion 17 Hot 19 Oats 21 Owed 23 Rows 25 Ripe 27 Hug 29 Boredom 31 Nap 34 Spa 36 Smoke 37 Offload 38 Eel 39 Lie 40 Nosey parker DOWN: 1 Soup 2 Home 3 Prairie 4 Even so 5 Disco 6 Slop 7 Soar 8 Crash 10 Gloss 16 Now 18 Top 20 Ash 22 Web 24 On offer 25 Rinse 26 Recoup 28 Glade 30 Obese 32 Amen 33 Polo 34 Sole 35 Pair
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He's always been good at the soft soap and the spiel, has Terry.
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It may sound like an odd request but my mother very rarely bought shampoo; if I was lucky she used green soft soap but most of the time my hair was washed in Puritan household soap and I dreaded a newbar because the corners were hard onmy head.
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The President, who is used to a much more soft soap American style of questioning, would have got just as tough a time from the likes of the BBC's Jeremy Paxman.
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"Soft soap has produced good, steady growth in the past years," says a company spokesman.
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There is too much soft soap on the personal hygiene courses, most people know how to wash their feet.
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Going to the Flames: The old Stipendiary Magistrate, Ignatius Morgan fixed it; fixed it with soft soap and the passing of time, first a day and a night, then a week, then a second postponement of the inquest, and all done with a word in the coroner's ear, letting things simmer down, as if evil spirits would go away, soft-shoeing over the tramway like vanishing gypsies who'd done their stint of filching and were now eager to creep off.
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Use soft soap to spot spray pest colonies Rescue lost ladybird larvae.
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One Liverpool worker said today: ``Bosses have tried to soft soap us and are asking us to show them the ropes.
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