Definition

1. Verb (phrasal verb):
   • To clean the dishes, cutlery, and other utensils after a meal: This is the primary meaning in British English, referring to the act of washing dishes after eating.
   • To be carried onto the shore by water: Used to describe something (often an object or a body) that is deposited on a beach or riverbank by the action of waves or currents.
   • To wash one's face and hands: A less common meaning, referring to the act of cleaning oneself, typically before a meal or after waking.
   • To be completely exhausted or finished; to be ruined or no longer successful: An idiomatic meaning indicating a state of being worn out, defeated, or having reached the end of one's usefulness or career.

Usage Examples

• Verb (cleaning dishes):
  • After we finish dinner, could you help me wash up?
  • It's your turn to wash up tonight.
• Verb (carried to shore):
  • Several pieces of driftwood washed up on the beach after the storm.
  • The missing boat finally washed up on a remote island.
• Verb (washing face/hands):
  • Go and wash up before we sit down to eat.
• Verb (exhausted/ruined):
  • After running the marathon, I was completely washed up.
  • Many considered the actor to be washed up after his last few films failed.

Advanced Usage

• "to be all washed up": To be completely finished, ruined, or exhausted.
  • After the scandal, his political career was all washed up.
• The meaning is highly dependent on context and regional usage (e.g., "wash up" meaning "do the dishes" is chiefly British).

Variants and Related Words

• Wash (verb): To clean with water and, typically, soap.
• Washing-up (noun, British English): The act of washing dishes; the dirty dishes to be washed.
  • I'll do the washing-up.

Synonyms

• For cleaning dishes: Do the dishes, clean up.
• For carried to shore: Be deposited, be cast up.
• For exhausted: Worn out, spent, done in, finished.
• For ruined: Done for, finished, over.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Wash out: To remove something by washing; to cancel or abandon (an event) due to rain; to fail or be eliminated from a course or competition.
  • The stain will wash out easily.
  • The picnic was washed out by the thunderstorm.
• Wash away: To remove or carry away by the action of water.
  • The flood washed away several cars.

Related Idioms

• Come out in the wash: To be resolved eventually; for the truth to become clear in time.
  • Don't worry about the details now; it will all come out in the wash.

Verb

1. wear out completely
   • This kind of work exhausts me
   • I'm beat
   • He was all washed up after the exam
2. be carried somewhere by water or as if by water
   • The body washed up on the beach
3. wash dishes
   • I cook and my husband washes up after dinner
4. carry somewhere (of water or current or waves)
   • The tide washed up the corpse
5. wash one's face and hands
   • She freshened up in the bathroom