sportswash

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verb

To use sporting events to improve a polity's reputation, especially to distract from human rights abuses.

Scrabble 18
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Meanings

verbsportswash (third-person singular simple present sportswashes, present participle sportswashing, simple past and past participle sportswashed)

present singular third person sportswashes · participle present sportswashing · participle past sportswashed · past sportswashed

  1. To use sporting events to improve a polity's reputation, especially to distract from human rights abuses.

    Asked how he would feel if the event was part of a move to "sportswash" over wrongdoing, he said: "If that was the case I would definitely have to say I would be bothered – but my only focus is the boxing."

    2019, “Joshua v Ruiz II: Anthony Joshua responds to 'sportswashing' Saudi human rights claims”, in BBC
nounsportswash (plural sportswashes)

plural sportswashes

  1. An incidence of sportswashing

Origin

From sports + -wash.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

sportswash. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sportswash

MLA

“sportswash.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sportswash. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “sportswash,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sportswash.

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