Idiom idiom
no soap
Meaning
It is (or was) a failure.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“I asked for a raise, but it was no soap.”
“We tried to fix the broken engine all afternoon, but it was no soap.”
“Despite their elaborate efforts to negotiate a peaceful resolution, the diplomats ultimately found that it was no soap.”
Origin
first recorded 18th c.
first recorded 18th c.
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.
Anchors to
Last updated August 10, 2026