︎
Since the early 19th century, to soft-soap someone is to flatter them or give them excessively deferential treatment. The idea is that soft soap is unctuous and if you pour soft soap down someone’s back or pour soft soap into someone’s...
matchy-matchy adj.— «If you’ve been following this blog, you know that I harbor a particular brand of irritation for matchy matchy book covers. Particularly matchy book covers that seem designed to identify these books to readers as books...