| 释义 |
soap and water
[soap n.]
The commonest method of washing, used in phrases referring to standards of personal cleanliness. Also attrib.
1837H. Martineau Society in Amer. II. iii. ii. 151 The demand of society for fresh air and soap and water has considerably increased. 1861Geo. Eliot Silas M. xiv. 243 A great ceremony with soap and water, from which baby came out in new beauty. 1907G. B. Shaw Major Barbara in John Bull's Other Island 168 Trans⁓figured men and women carry their gospel through a transfigured world..practising what the world will let them practise, including soap and water, color and music. 1922E. O'Neill Hairy Ape iv. 37 Their faces and bodies shine from a soap and water scrubbing. 1961L. Mumford City in History xv. 469 The spread of the soap-and-water habit might well account for the lowering of infant mortality rates. 1973A. MacVicar Painted Doll Affair iii. 39 She was an enthusiast for soap and water, as her schoolgirl complexion showed.
Hence soap-and-water v. trans.
1848Dickens Dombey xxxi, By-the-bye, she'll soap-and-water that 'ere tablet presently. 1883Pall Mall G. 27 Oct. 2/1 So soap-and-watering the infant Gargantua as to fit him for a Sunday school. |