Meanings
present singular third person humanewashes · participle present humanewashing · participle past humanewashed · past humanewashed
- To engage in the animal welfare analogue of greenwashing.
1 more example
Now, a new report from the anti-factory farming group Farm Forward seeks to outline the differences between independent and industry animal welfare labels and expose what it calls “humanewashing” among both types of groups. Like the now widely recognized practice of “greenwashing,” Farm Forward says that companies use humanewashing to deceive consumers who care about animal rights, leading them to believe animals were raised according to their expectations of humane treatment even when they were not.
2021 January 19, Lisa Held, “Are Some Animal Welfare Labels 'Humanewashing'?”, in Civil Eats, retrieved 13 Sep 2021
Origin
From humane + wash, following the established pattern of greenwash, pinkwash, and similar forms (which came ultimately from the figurative-extension sense of whitewash as "to slap a paintjob over the truth to hide it and to give a specious nice appearance"); this form also rhymes with brainwash, as does sustainwash.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
humanewash. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/humanewash
“humanewash.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/humanewash. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “humanewash,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/humanewash.
Source: humanewash on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.