wash

present singular third person washes · participle present washing · past washed · participle past washed · archaic participle past washen · first person past singular washed · past second person singular washed · present singular third person washes · past singular third person washed · past plural washed · past subjunctive washed · participle present washing · participle past washed

1. transitiveTo clean with water.

   The car is so dirty, we need to wash it.

   5 more examples

   Dishwashers wash dishes way more efficiently than most humans.

   This new washing powder rlly washes bedclothes superwhite.

   Wash the vegetables, drain off the surplus water, and pack them in a keg, crock, or other utensil until it is nearly full

   1917, Lester Angell Round, Harold Locke Lang, Preservation of vegetables by fermentation and salting, page 9

   If using celery or okra, wash the vegetables in safe water.

   1971, Homemaking Handbook: For Village Workers in Many Countries, page 101

   Wash the vegetables thoroughly; even a little dirt can contain bacteria. Wash vegetables individually under running water.

   2010, Catherine Abbott, The Everything Grow Your Own Vegetables Book: Your Complete Guide to planting, tending, and harvesting vegetables, Everything Books, →ISBN, page 215

2. transitiveTo carry away or erode by the force of water in motion.

   The flood washed away houses.

   3 more examples

   Don't pour that in the drain; it will wash downstream.

   Heavy rains wash a road or an embankment.

   The remaining flotsam was washed ashore.

3. intransitiveTo be eroded or carried away by the action of water.
4. intransitiveTo clean oneself with water.

   I wash every morning after getting up.

5. transitiveTo cover with water or any liquid; to wet; to fall on and moisten.

   Waves wash the shore.

   2 more examples

   fresh-blown roses washed with dew

   a. 1645, John Milton, “L’Allegro”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC

   [the landscape] washed with a cold, grey mist

   1858 October 16, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Courtship of Miles Standish”, in The Courtship of Miles Standish, and Other Poems, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC

6. intransitiveTo move with a lapping or swashing sound; to lap or splash.

   to hear the water washing

   1 more example

   I heard the ripple washing in the reeds, / And the wild water lapping on the crag.

   1870, Alfred Tennyson, “The Passing of Arthur”, in The Holy Grail and Other Poems, London: Strahan and Co., […], →OCLC, page 144

7. intransitiveTo withstand being washed without impairment, as clothing, especially dyed clothing.
8. figurativelyintransitiveTo be cogent, convincing; to withstand critique.

   2012, The Economist, Oct 13th 2012 issue, The Jordan and its king: As beleaguered as ever The king is running out of ideas as well as cash. His favourite shock-absorbing tactic—to blame his governments and sack his prime ministers—hardly washes.

   5 more examples

   “And then, how could he know it was her coffee? No, old fellow, I don’t think that will wash.”

   1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 128

   I don't find the answers you have given will wash with the general public. And eventually, if they don't wash, then these deductions will be gone.

   1985, Bob Packwood, “Tax Reform Proposals: Hearing Before the Committee on Finance”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Finance, page 52

   Laureano singled out for criticism several board members who resisted the creation of the MAC and who suggested instead that the board deal with "reverse discrimination." "That doesn't wash," said Laureano. "It's just a knee-jerk reaction to what we are trying to achieve."

   1988 April 16, Chris Bull, “PWA Group Struggles To Reach People of Color”, in Gay Community News, page 12

   Claims of a lack of parliamentary time don't wash.

   2023 May 31, Nigel Harris, “Comment: GBR now! We have no Plan B”, in RAIL, number 984, page 3

   It won’t wash this time because Democrats smell blood, because Trump’s own supporters remain fixated and because the president’s refusal to release the Epstein files only adds to the intrigue.

   2025 September 9, David Smith, “The president doth protest too much: Trump’s denial on Epstein is backfiring”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

9. intransitiveTo bear without damage the operation of being washed; to be suitable for washing.

   Some calicoes do not wash.

10. transitiveTo cover with a thin or watery coat of colour; to tint lightly and thinly.
11. transitiveTo overlay with a thin coat of metal.

    steel washed with silver

12. transitivechemistryTo pass or extract (a gas or gaseous mixture) through or over a liquid for the purpose of purifying it, especially by removing soluble constituents.

    Aqueous washings are done to remove water soluble impurities from organic products since normally the compound that you desire will be dissolved in the organic layer[…]

    2012, MIT OpenCourseWare, Chemistry Laboratory Techniques, page 1

13. businessTo separate valuable material (such as gold) from worthless material by the action of flowing water.
14. transitiveTo cause dephosphorization of (molten pig iron) by adding substances containing iron oxide, and sometimes manganese oxide.
15. To mix up tiles (before a new game) to make them random; to shuffle.

plural washes

1. countableuncountableThe process or an instance of washing or being washed by water or other liquid.

   My jacket needs a wash.

   1 more example

   I'm going to have a quick wash before coming to bed.

2. countableuncountableA liquid used for washing.
3. countableuncountableA lotion or other liquid with medicinal or hygienic properties.

   hand wash

   1 more example

   mouth wash

4. countableuncountableThe quantity of clothes washed at a time.

   There's a lot in that wash: maybe you should split it into two piles.

5. countableuncountableartA smooth and translucent painting created using a paintbrush holding a large amount of solvent and a small amount of paint.
6. countableuncountableThe breaking of waves on the shore; the onwards rush of shallow water towards a beach.

   I could hear the wash of the wave.

   2 more examples

   […] the wind in the cordage and the wash of the sea helped the more to put them beyond earshot […]

   1924, Herman Melville, chapter 16, in Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co.

   Bradly posed Cora against the incessantly moving patterns of the wash and set to work with nervous haste, alarmed at the difficult problem of water in movement.

   1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 192

7. The bow wave, wake, or vortex of an object moving in a fluid, in particular:
   1. countableuncountableThe bow wave or wake of a moving ship, or the vortex from its screws.

      The ship left a big wash

      2 more examples

      Sail away from the wash to avoid rocking the boat.

      To date, much of the research undertaken on high-speed vessel wake wash has appeared only as unpublished reports for various authorities and management agencies.

      2003, Guidelines for Managing Wake Wash from High-speed Vessels: Report of Working Group 41 of the Maritime Navigation Commission, PIANC, →ISBN, page 5

   2. countableuncountableThe turbulence left in the air by a moving airplane.
   3. countableuncountableThe backward current or disturbed water caused by the action of oars, or of a steamer's screw or paddles, etc.
8. countableuncountablenauticalThe blade of an oar.
9. countableuncountableGround washed away to the sea or a river.

   The wash of pastures, fields, commons, and roads, […]where rain water hath a long time settled.

   1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC

10. countableuncountableA piece of ground washed by the action of water, or sometimes covered and sometimes left dry; the shallowest part of a river, or arm of the sea; also, a bog; a marsh.

    These Lincoln washes have devoured them.

    c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene vi]

11. countableuncountableA shallow body of water.
12. countableuncountableIn arid and semi-arid regions, the normally dry bed of an intermittent or ephemeral stream.

    Near-synonyms: arroyo, wadi, nahal (synonymous other than regiolectal specificity)

    3 more examples

    1997, Stanley Desmond Smith, et al. Physiological Ecology of North American Desert Plants, Nature In some desert-wash systems (which have been termed “xero-riparian”)

    ...though the wash may carry surface water for only a few hours a year.

    1999, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert

    Rock Spring Wash continues a short distance then joins Watson Wash. Water from Rock Spring comes out of the boulder strewn wash and disappears into the sand

    2005, Le Hayes, Pilgrims in the Desert: The Early History of the East Mojave Desert

    Synonyms: dry wash, arroyo, wadi, nahal

13. countableidiomaticuncountableA situation in which gains and losses or advantages and disadvantages are equivalent, or in which there is no net change.

    I knew that for every vote I cast for, say, the Republicans, some kid at a polling place nearby was casting his votes for the Democrats, so it was probably a wash or close to it.

    2003, David Brenner, I Think There's a Terrorist in My Soup, page 100

14. countableslanguncountablebusinessA fictitious kind of sale of stock or other securities between parties of one interest, or by a broker who is both buyer and seller, and who minds his own interest rather than that of his clients.
15. countableuncountableWaste liquid, the refuse of food, the collection from washed dishes, etc., from a kitchen, often used as food for pigs; pigwash.
16. countableuncountableIn distilling, the fermented wort before the spirit is extracted.
17. countableuncountableA mixture of dunder, molasses, water, and scummings, used in the West Indies for distillation.

    In order to augment the vinosity of the wash, many substances are recommended by Dr. Shaw, such as tartar, nitre, common salt, and the vegetable or mineral acids.

    1793, Bryan Edwards, History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies

18. countableuncountableA thin coat of paint or metal laid on anything for beauty or preservation.
19. countableuncountableTen strikes, or bushels, of oysters.
20. countableuncountablearchitectureThe upper surface of a member or material when given a slope to shed water; hence, a structure or receptacle shaped so as to receive and carry off water.

    a carriage wash in a stable

21. countableuncountablebroadcastingA lighting effect that fills a scene with a chosen colour.
22. countableuncountableA lighting fixture that can cast a wide beam of light to evenly fill an area with light, as opposed to a spotlight.
23. countableuncountableA total failure; a washout.

1. abbreviationacronymuncountableAcronym of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene.

1. A bay with multiple estuaries of great ecological importance in eastern England, dividing Lincolnshire from Norfolk.

1. A diminutive of the male given name Washington.