-wash

suffix

To coat with, or a coating of, paint of the colour specified.

Meanings

suffix
  1. To coat with, or a coating of, paint of the colour specified.

    The natives dig clay from both places, in order to paint or rather redwash the walls of their huts.

    1930, Francis Hamilton, Journal of Francis Buchanan Kept During the Survey of the District of Bhagalpur in 1810-1811
    2 more examples

    At present, successive coats of yellowwash fill up the rich decoration of this doorway, so that its beauty is not brought out to the eye of the unpractised visitor.

    1848, Joshua Fawcett, Church rides in the neighbourhood of Scarborough, Yorkshire, page 22

    The only touch of color was provided by a small copy Leonardo's Last Supper and three crudely painted windows, executed in a kind of bluewash and orangewash, over the altar.

    2021, Roger H. Guichard, Middle East Tapestry, Wipf and Stock Publishers, →ISBN, page 266
  2. To focus on, or an act of focussing on, a supposedly positive aspect of an organisation in order to distract from or downplay negative perceptions.

    In embracing and promoting their collaborations with WWF, these companies are being encouraged to greenwash their brands with the WWF logo.

    2012, Guy Pearse, Greenwash: Big Brands and Carbon Scams, Black Inc., →ISBN
    3 more examples

    They are likely to remain small and relatively marginalized niche markets, even as some of their rhetoric is appropriated by the TNCs for use as marketing gimmicks and bluewash.

    2004, John M. Talbot, Grounds for Agreement: The Political Economy of the Coffee Commodity Chain, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, →ISBN, page 210

    One might argue that more is at stake than hiring multiracial, female, and lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender (LGBT) employees to rainbowwash corporate agendas.

    2014, Bruce Burgett, Glenn Hendler, Keywords for American Cultural Studies, Second Edition, NYU Press, →ISBN

    Spade suggests here, in the same breath, both that the Obama administration uses its "declarations of gay rights" to pinkwash and that its support for gay rights is "used as a rationale for domestic and international regimes of racialized violence and warfare."

    2018, Cyril Ghosh, De-Moralizing Gay Rights: Some Queer Remarks on LGBT+ Rights Politics in the US, Springer, →ISBN, page 20
  3. informalAn overwhelming victory by a team or entity of the colour specified; often a clean sweep.

    A Maroonwash will be two-thirds complete on a fast track at Suncorp.

    2016 June 21, Andrew Webster, Roy Masters, Steve Mascord, Phil Lutton, Brad Walter, with Barrett, Chris, Pengilly, Adam, Proszenko, Adrian, and Chammas, Michael, “State of Origin 2016: Who the experts are tipping in game two”, in The Sydney Morning Herald
    2 more examples

    So many were delighted when he was unceremoniously turfed from office in the 2015 redwash, with his USDP losing every single seat in the region.

    2017 December 28, “Myanmar's newsmakers of 2017”, in Frontier Myanmar

    To achieve a bluewash for the first time in a thousand years? Quite the incentive for Brad Fittler’s Baby Blues.

    2018 July 11, Dan Liebke, “The Liebke Ratings: State of Origin 3”, in The Roar

Origin

Back-formation from whitewash. Second sense popularised by greenwash.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

-wash. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/-wash

MLA

“-wash.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/-wash. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “-wash,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/-wash.

Source: -wash on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.