soap-boiler
[soap n. Cf. Du. zeepzieder, G. seifensieder.]
1. One who boils (the ingredients of) soap; a soap-maker, soap-manufacturer.
| 1594 Plat Jewell-ho. 77 A wise, wealthie, and ancient Sopeboyler, dwelling without Algate. 1651 French Distill. iii. 80 Quench them in the strongest Lixivium that Sope⁓boylers use. 1661 Evelyn Fumifugium (1825) 220 Brewers, diers,..salt and sope-boylers, and some other private trades. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 488 ¶1, I have a Letter from a Soap-boiler, who condoles with me [etc.]. 1752 Foote Taste ii, A Bristol farthing, coin'd by a soap⁓boiler to pay his journeymen, in the scarcity of cash. 1838 Lytton Alice vi. iv, The whisper spread among bankers and brewers and soap-boilers and other rich people. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. I. 331/2 There is an increasing demand for it [sc. caustic soda] on the part of bleachers and soap boilers. |
| transf. 1877 Bagehot Biogr. Stud. (1881) 316 Some of the middle-aged men of business, the ‘soap-boilers’, as the London world disrespectfully calls them. |
b. In collocations (
cf. soaper 1 c).
| 1707 Mortimer Husb. (1721) I. 291 Take Soap-boylers Liquor or Lee which is very sharp and strong. 1815 J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art II. 451 The common bottle-glass is..made with..soap-boiler's waste ashes. 1834–6 Encycl. Metrop. (1845) VIII. 475/2 Green Bottle Glass..is commonly made of soap-boiler's waste and sand. |
2. A pot used for boiling soap; a soap-pan.
| 1863 W. C. Baldwin Afr. Hunting vi. 152 The only utensil we could hit upon..to cook him in was a soap-boiler. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 2233/1 A soap-boiler having a large pipe which receives the vapors rising from the kettle. |