Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A man who wears soap-locks; hence, a low fellow; a young rowdy or rough: as, “the soap-locks of the Bowery.”
- noun A lock of hair worn on the temple and kept smoothly in place by being soaped; hence, any lock brushed apart from the rest of the hair, and carefully kept in position.
Etymologies
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Examples
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East of the Bowery, that intersect Division, Grand, and up to Third avenue -- types that never found their Dickens, or Hogarth, or Balzac, and have pass'd away unportraitured -- the young ship-builders, cartmen, butchers, firemen (the old-time "soap-lock" or exaggerated "Mose" or
Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy Walt Whitman 1855
qms commented on the word soap-lock
CHANFRAU'S MOSE
A bold fireboy was cock of the walk,
With saucy manner and insolent talk,
And more than his plug
And the smirk on his mug
He vaunted his rank with a fine soap-lock.
January 29, 2014