social lubricant

noun

A food, beverage, drug or activity that helps people feel more comfortable in social occasions.

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Meanings

nounsocial lubricant (plural social lubricants)

plural social lubricants

  1. idiomaticA food, beverage, drug or activity that helps people feel more comfortable in social occasions.

    Beer's qualities as a “social lubricant” should play an important role in the debate on the harms of alcohol, according to the boss of Heineken.

    2025 October 25, Madeleine Speed, “Heineken stirs debate on health with toast to beer’s role as a social lubricant”, in FT Weekend, London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1

Origin

By a metaphor in which facilitating human social interaction is portrayed as lubricating machinery (e.g., oiling the gears, greasing the wheels); in this regard, compare also lubrication payment.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

social lubricant. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/social%20lubricant

MLA

“social lubricant.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/social%20lubricant. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “social lubricant,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/social%20lubricant.

Source: social lubricant on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.