no soap

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.

no soap

1. (idiomatic, slang, dated) It is (or was) a failure.

   Synonyms: no joy, nothing doing

   • 1942, Rex Stout, Black Orchids‎, Farrar & Rinehart:

     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.

   • 1953, Saul Bellow, chapter 25, in The Adventures of Augie March, New York: Viking Press, →OCLC:

     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.

   • 1973, Robert B. Parker, The Godwulf Manuscript‎, Houghton Mifflin:

     I rang. Nothing happened. I rang again and leaned on it. No soap.

   • 1983 March, Bruce Jay Friedman, “Detroit Abe”, in Esquire‎:

     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.

   • 1992, Richard Ben Cramer, What It Takes: The Way to the White House‎, Random House:

     And he tried again—Lou always persisted—but no soap.

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