Definition

1. Verb:

   • To clean something using water and usually soap or detergent.
   • (Of water) To flow against, over, or past something.
   • To carry or be carried away by the movement of water.
   • To be believable, acceptable, or convincing (informal).
   • To apply a thin, liquid layer of paint, color, or metal to a surface.
   • To separate valuable material (like gold) from dirt or gravel using water.

2. Noun:

   • The act or process of cleaning with water and soap.
   • Clothes, linens, or other items that are to be, are being, or have been cleaned by laundering.
   • The flow or sound of water moving, especially waves.
   • A thin, watery layer of paint or color applied to a surface.
   • A situation where gains and losses balance each other out, resulting in no net change.
   • The erosion of soil or land by water.

Examples of Usage

• Verb:

  • Please wash your hands before dinner.
  • The waves wash against the shore.
  • The flood washed away several cars.
  • His flimsy excuse didn't wash with the teacher.
  • She washed the canvas with a light blue color.
  • Miners wash sediment to find gold.

• Noun:

  • I need to give the car a good wash.
  • Don't forget to put the wash in the dryer.
  • We listened to the wash of the ocean.
  • The artist applied a wash of gray to the background.
  • Financially, the deal was a wash; we broke even.
  • The heavy rain caused significant wash on the hillside.

Advanced Usage

• "It will all come out in the wash" (Idiom): Means that the truth will eventually be revealed, or that problems will be resolved in time.

  • Don't worry about the small details now; it will all come out in the wash.

• "Wash one's hands of something" (Idiom): To refuse to accept responsibility for something any longer.

  • After the project failed, he washed his hands of the whole affair.

Variants and Related Words

• Washer (n): A machine for washing clothes; a small flat ring used to make a bolt or nut fit tightly.
• Washable (adj): Able to be washed without being damaged.
• Washboard (n): A board with a ridged surface used for scrubbing clothes; (informal) very well-defined abdominal muscles.
• Washout (n): A complete failure; a channel formed by erosion.
• Washroom (n): A room with a toilet and sink; a restroom.

Synonyms

• Verb: Cleanse, rinse, launder, scrub, bathe, erode.
• Noun: Laundering, cleaning, ablution, flow, coat, erosion.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Wash away: To remove or be removed by flowing water.
  • The bridge was washed away in the storm.
• Wash down: To clean a surface with water; to help swallow food or medicine with a drink.
  • He washed down his pill with a glass of water.
• Wash off: To remove something from a surface by washing.
  • It's hard to wash this mud off my boots.
• Wash out: To remove a stain by washing; to cause an event to be canceled due to rain; (informal) to fail or be removed from a course or activity.
  • The game was washed out by heavy rain.
• Wash over: (Of a feeling) to affect someone suddenly.
  • A wave of relief washed over her.

Related Idioms

• "Wash your dirty linen in public": To discuss private or embarrassing matters in public.
  • The politicians should stop washing their dirty linen in public.
• "Like water off a duck's back": Criticism or negative events that have no effect on someone.
  • The insults were like water off a duck's back to him.

Verb

1. to cleanse (itself or another animal) by licking
   • The cat washes several times a day
2. wash or flow against
   • the waves laved the shore
3. make moist
   • The dew moistened the meadows
4. form by erosion
   • The river washed a ravine into the mountainside
5. remove by the application of water or other liquid and soap or some other cleaning agent
   • he washed the dirt from his coat
   • The nurse washed away the blood
   • Can you wash away the spots on the windows?
   • he managed to wash out the stains
6. apply a thin coating of paint, metal, etc., to
7. separate dirt or gravel from (precious minerals)
8. admit to testing or proof
   • This silly excuse won't wash in traffic court
9. be capable of being washed
   • Does this material wash?
10. move by or as if by water
    • The swollen river washed away the footbridge
11. cleanse with a cleaning agent, such as soap, and water
    • Wash the towels, please!
12. cleanse (one's body) with soap and water
13. clean with some chemical process

Noun

1. any enterprise in which losses and gains cancel out
   • at the end of the year the accounting department showed that it was a wash
2. garments or white goods that can be cleaned by laundering
3. a watercolor made by applying a series of monochrome washes one over the other
4. the flow of air that is driven backwards by an aircraft propeller
5. the erosive process of washing away soil or gravel by water (as from a roadway)
   • from the house they watched the washout of their newly seeded lawn by the water
6. the dry bed of an intermittent stream (as at the bottom of a canyon)
7. the work of cleansing (usually with soap and water)
8. a thin coat of water-base paint