vbl. sb. [SOAP sb.] The business, occupation or process of boiling soap.
1634. in Rymer Fœdera (1732), XIX. 507. The said Trade of Soap-making or Soap-boiling.
1714. Mandeville, Fab. Bees (1733), II. 152. Soap-boiling, grain-dying, and other trades and mysteries.
1780. Phil. Trans., LXX. 351. Perhaps the addition of this caustic substance would increase its … value, when employed in soap-boiling and other arts.
1834–6. Encycl. Metrop. (1845), VIII. 435/1. The first portion … is of course the strongest, and is reserved for the last operation of soap-boiling.
1887. Encycl. Brit., XXII. 203/1. The process of soap-boiling is carried out in large iron boilers.
attrib. 1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., Suppl. 827/1. The interior of a soap boiling kettle.
