[Ads-l] "how are you off for soap?"

[Stephen Goranson]

OED 1834
In the slang phrase, how are you off for soap?
The early examples afford no clue as to the origin of the expression, and their date is against the view that the sense of ‘money’ (see below) was intended.

Several earlier texts suggest that this means unwashed, as in
How are you—being as you are so—off for soap?

sg



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