Definition of "wash"

wash

/wɒʃ/

verb
third-person singular simple present washes, present participle washing, simple past washed, past participle washed or (archaic) washen
1. To clean with water.
  Quotations
  Wash the vegetables, drain off the surplus water, and pack them in a keg, crock, or other utensil until it is nearly full
  1917, Lester Angell Round, Harold Locke Lang, Preservation of vegetables by fermentation and salting, page 9
  If using celery or okra, wash the vegetables in safe water.
  1971, Homemaking Handbook: For Village Workers in Many Countries, page 101
  Wash the vegetables thoroughly; even a little dirt can contain bacteria. Wash vegetables individually under running water.
  2010, Catherine Abbott, The Everything Grow Your Own Vegetables Book: Your Complete Guide to planting, tending, and harvesting vegetables, Everything Books, page 215
2. (transitive) To move or erode by the force of water in motion.
3. (mining) To separate valuable material (such as gold) from worthless material by the action of flowing water.
4. (intransitive) To clean oneself with water.
5. (transitive) To cover with water or any liquid; to wet; to fall on and moisten.
  Quotations
  fresh-blown roses washed with dew
  a. 1645, John Milton, “L’Allegro”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646
  [the landscape] washed with a cold, grey mist
  1858 October 16, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Courtship of Miles Standish”, in The Courtship of Miles Standish, and Other Poems, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields
6. (intransitive) To move with a lapping or swashing sound; to lap or splash.
  Quotations
  I heard the ripple washing in the reeds, / And the wild water lapping on the crag.
  1870, Alfred Tennyson, “The Passing of Arthur”, in The Holy Grail and Other Poems, London: Strahan and Co., […], page 144
7. (intransitive) To be eroded or carried away by the action of water.
8. (intransitive, figuratively) To be cogent, convincing; to withstand critique.
  Quotations
  The king is running out of ideas as well as cash. His favourite shock-absorbing tactic—to blame his governments and sack his prime ministers—hardly washes.
  2012, The Economist, Oct 13th 2012 issue, The Jordan and its king: As beleaguered as ever
  Claims of a lack of parliamentary time don't wash.
  2023 May 31, Nigel Harris, “Comment: GBR now! We have no Plan B”, in RAIL, number 984, page 3
9. (intransitive) To bear without injury the operation of being washed.
10. (intransitive) To be wasted or worn away by the action of water, as by a running or overflowing stream, or by the dashing of the sea; said of road, a beach, etc.
11. To cover with a thin or watery coat of colour; to tint lightly and thinly.
12. To overlay with a thin coat of metal.
13. (transitive) To cause dephosphorization of (molten pig iron) by adding substances containing iron oxide, and sometimes manganese oxide.
14. (transitive) To pass (a gas or gaseous mixture) through or over a liquid for the purpose of purifying it, especially by removing soluble constituents.
noun
countable and uncountable, plural washes
1. The process or an instance of washing or being washed by water or other liquid.
2. A liquid used for washing.
3. A lotion or other liquid with medicinal or hygienic properties.
4. The quantity of clothes washed at a time.
5. (art) A smooth and translucent painting created using a paintbrush holding a large amount of solvent and a small amount of paint.
6. The breaking of waves on the shore; the onwards rush of shallow water towards a beach.
  Quotations
  […] the wind in the cordage and the wash of the sea helped the more to put them beyond earshot […]
  1924, Herman Melville, chapter 16, in Billy Budd‎, London: Constable & Co.
  Bradly posed Cora against the incessantly moving patterns of the wash and set to work with nervous haste, alarmed at the difficult problem of water in movement.
  1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, page 192
7. The bow wave, wake, or vortex of an object moving in a fluid, in particular:
  1. The bow wave or wake of a moving ship, or the vortex from its screws.
    Quotations
    To date, much of the research undertaken on high-speed vessel wake wash has appeared only as unpublished reports for various authorities and management agencies.
    2003, Guidelines for Managing Wake Wash from High-speed Vessels: Report of Working Group 41 of the Maritime Navigation Commission, PIANC, page 5
  2. The turbulence left in the air by a moving airplane.
  3. The backward current or disturbed water caused by the action of oars, or of a steamer's screw or paddles, etc.
8. (nautical) The blade of an oar.
9. Ground washed away to the sea or a river.
  Quotations
  The wash of pastures, fields, commons, and roads, […] where rain water hath a long time settled.
  1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], 2nd edition, London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], published 1708
10. A piece of ground washed by the action of water, or sometimes covered and sometimes left dry; the shallowest part of a river, or arm of the sea; also, a bog; a marsh.
  Quotations
  These Lincoln washes have devoured them.
  c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene vi]
11. A shallow body of water.
12. In arid and semi-arid regions, the normally dry bed of an intermittent or ephemeral stream; an arroyo or wadi.
  Quotations
  In some desert-wash systems (which have been termed “xero-riparian”)
  1997, Stanley Desmond Smith, et al. Physiological Ecology of North American Desert Plants, Nature
  ...though the wash may carry surface water for only a few hours a year.
  1999, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert
  Rock Spring Wash continues a short distance then joins Watson Wash. Water from Rock Spring comes out of the boulder strewn wash and disappears into the sand
  2005, Le Hayes, Pilgrims in the Desert: The Early History of the East Mojave Desert
13. A situation in which losses and gains or advantages and disadvantages are equivalent; a situation in which there is no net change.
  Quotations
  I knew that for every vote I cast for, say, the Republicans, some kid at a polling place nearby was casting his votes for the Democrats, so it was probably a wash or close to it.
  2003, David Brenner, I Think There's a Terrorist in My Soup, page 100
14. (finance, slang) A fictitious kind of sale of stock or other securities between parties of one interest, or by a broker who is both buyer and seller, and who minds his own interest rather than that of his clients.
15. Waste liquid, the refuse of food, the collection from washed dishes, etc., from a kitchen, often used as food for pigs; pigwash.
16. In distilling, the fermented wort before the spirit is extracted.
17. A mixture of dunder, molasses, water, and scummings, used in the West Indies for distillation.
  Quotations
  In order to augment the vinosity of the wash, many substances are recommended by Dr. Shaw, such as tartar, nitre, common salt, and the vegetable or mineral acids.
  1793, Bryan Edwards, History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies
18. A thin coat of paint or metal laid on anything for beauty or preservation.
19. Ten strikes, or bushels, of oysters.
20. (architecture) The upper surface of a member or material when given a slope to shed water; hence, a structure or receptacle shaped so as to receive and carry off water.
21. (television) A lighting effect that fills a scene with a chosen colour.
22. (stagecraft) A lighting fixture that can cast a wide beam of light to evenly fill an area with light, as opposed to a spotlight.

Definition of "wash"

wash

verb

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

noun

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations