Meanings
- obsoletepossiblyuncountableA soft earthy mineral, of a brownish colour, which has a greasy or soapy feel and is used as a filler in crayons.
[…] seven different minerals possessing the same formula, namely, fahlunite, esmarkite, pyrargillite, bole, iron lithomarge, halloylite from La Vouth and from Thiviers, and mountain soap from Thuringia.
1848, American Journal of Science and Arts, page 722 more examples
It soils either strongly, as chalk and mountain soap; or slightly, as molybdana, lead glauce, and graphite. Besides this, there are three other distinctions connected with this character to be attended to.
1805, Robert Jameson, A Treatise on the External Characters of Minerals, page 76Sometimes, after removing the coating of calcspar from the crystals, they appear to be covered with a mass resembling steinmark or mountain soap. The compact and crystalline hornblende occurs almost everywhere as a constituent of the[…]
1859, Gustav Bischof, Elements of Chemical and Physical Geology ..., page 311
Synonyms & antonyms
Cite this entry
mountain soap. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mountain%20soap
“mountain soap.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mountain%20soap. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “mountain soap,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mountain%20soap.
Source: mountain soap on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.