A lock of hair made to lie smooth by soaping it. Hence also a name given to a low set of fellows who lounge about the markets, engine-houses, and wharves of New York, and are always ready to engage in midnight rows or broils. It is, in fact, but another name for a Rowdy or Loafer. The name comes from their wearing long side locks, which they are said to smear with soap, in order to give them a sleek appearance; whence the name.
The way my last letter has cradled off the soaplocks, and imperials, and goat-knots, and musty shows, is truly alarming.--Maj. Jones's Courtship.
A glossary of provincial and local words used in England by Francis Grose
Flattery; blarney. A vulgar phrase, though much used. to soft soap To flatter; to blarney. I am t...
Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.
The whole. A figurative expression borrowed from sportsmen, and having reference to a gun. Look at ...
Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.