flatter vs soft-soap

flatter and soft-soap both are verbs.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
flatter	No	No	Yes	No
soft-soap	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, soft-soap is a hyponym of flatter; that is, soft-soap is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than flatter:

Other hyponyms of flatter include adulate, stroke, bootlick, fawn, kotow, kowtow, suck up, toady, truckle, brown-nose, butter up.

flatter (verb)	soft-soap (verb)
praise somewhat dishonestly	use flattering talk on somebody
	persuade someone through flattery