come out in the wash

present singular third person comes out in the wash · participle present coming out in the wash · past came out in the wash

1. idiomaticOf problems or difficulties, to work out, resolve, or become understood eventually and naturally.

   It may look like a huge mess now, but I expect that it will all come out in the wash as time goes on.

2. idiomaticOf advantages and disadvantages, to cancel each other out.

   The number 12 bus is faster, but the number 17 stops nearer my house, so it all comes out in the wash.

   2 more examples

   I have heard it said that “Wrong grades are wrong both ways, and so although any GCSE certificate with 8 grades might have two wrong grades, one is too high and the other too low. So it all comes out in the wash. It doesn’t matter.”

   2019 January 19, Dennis Sherwood, “1 school exam grade in 4 is wrong. Does this matter?”, in Higher Education Policy Institute

   I think there was some comfort, however, in being able to buy the space previously and obviously the retailers used to benefit from that cash as well, but sometimes they would be promoting a title that would ultimately sell less than another just because they'd been given some marketing money. So, it comes out in the wash one way or another.

   2025 October 7, Jonathan Sadler, Film Marketing and Distribution: An Independent Filmmaker's Guide, Creative Essentials, →ISBN

3. idiomaticOf the truth: to be inevitably revealed in the future.

   You can do everything you can to hide this, but everything comes out in the wash.