'Wash' definitions:

Definition of 'wash'

(from WordNet)
noun
A thin coat of water-base paint
noun
The work of cleansing (usually with soap and water) [syn: wash, washing, lavation]
noun
The dry bed of an intermittent stream (as at the bottom of a canyon) [syn: wash, dry wash]
noun
The erosive process of washing away soil or gravel by water (as from a roadway); "from the house they watched the washout of their newly seeded lawn by the water" [syn: washout, wash]
noun
The flow of air that is driven backwards by an aircraft propeller [syn: slipstream, airstream, race, backwash, wash]
noun
A watercolor made by applying a series of monochrome washes one over the other [syn: wash, wash drawing]
noun
Garments or white goods that can be cleaned by laundering [syn: laundry, wash, washing, washables]
noun
Any enterprise in which losses and gains cancel out; "at the end of the year the accounting department showed that it was a wash"
verb
Clean with some chemical process [syn: wash, rinse]
verb
Cleanse (one's body) with soap and water [syn: wash, lave]
verb
Cleanse with a cleaning agent, such as soap, and water; "Wash the towels, please!" [syn: wash, launder]
verb
Move by or as if by water; "The swollen river washed away the footbridge"
verb
Be capable of being washed; "Does this material wash?"
verb
Admit to testing or proof; "This silly excuse won't wash in traffic court"
verb
Separate dirt or gravel from (precious minerals)
verb
Apply a thin coating of paint, metal, etc., to
verb
Remove by the application of water or other liquid and soap or some other cleaning agent; "he washed the dirt from his coat"; "The nurse washed away the blood"; "Can you wash away the spots on the windows?"; "he managed to wash out the stains" [syn: wash, wash out, wash off, wash away]
verb
Form by erosion; "The river washed a ravine into the mountainside"
verb
Make moist; "The dew moistened the meadows" [syn: moisten, wash, dampen]
verb
Wash or flow against; "the waves laved the shore" [syn: lave, lap, wash]
verb
To cleanse (itself or another animal) by licking; "The cat washes several times a day"

Definition of 'Wash'

From: GCIDE
  • Wash \Wash\ (w[o^]sh), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Washed; p. pr. & vb. n. Washing.] [OE. waschen, AS. wascan; akin to D. wasschen, G. waschen, OHG. wascan, Icel. & Sw. vaska, Dan. vaske, and perhaps to E. water. [root]150.]
  • 1. To cleanse by ablution, or dipping or rubbing in water; to apply water or other liquid to for the purpose of cleansing; to scrub with water, etc., or as with water; as, to wash the hands or body; to wash garments; to wash sheep or wool; to wash the pavement or floor; to wash the bark of trees. [1913 Webster]
  • When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, . . . he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person. --Matt. xxvii. 24. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. To cover with water or any liquid; to wet; to fall on and moisten; hence, to overflow or dash against; as, waves wash the shore. [1913 Webster]
  • Fresh-blown roses washed with dew. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
  • [The landscape] washed with a cold, gray mist. --Longfellow. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. To waste or abrade by the force of water in motion; as, heavy rains wash a road or an embankment. [1913 Webster]
  • 4. To remove by washing to take away by, or as by, the action of water; to drag or draw off as by the tide; -- often with away, off, out, etc.; as, to wash dirt from the hands. [1913 Webster]
  • Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins. --Acts xxii. 16. [1913 Webster]
  • The tide will wash you off. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • 5. To cover with a thin or watery coat of color; to tint lightly and thinly. [1913 Webster]
  • 6. To overlay with a thin coat of metal; as, steel washed with silver. [1913 Webster]
  • 7. To cause dephosphorisation of (molten pig iron) by adding substances containing iron oxide, and sometimes manganese oxide. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
  • 8. To pass (a gas or gaseous mixture) through or over a liquid for the purpose of purifying it, esp. by removing soluble constituents. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
  • To wash gold, etc., to treat earth or gravel, or crushed ore, with water, in order to separate the gold or other metal, or metallic ore, through their higher density.
  • To wash the hands of. See under Hand. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'Wash'

From: GCIDE
  • Wash \Wash\, n.
  • 1. The act of washing; an ablution; a cleansing, wetting, or dashing with water; hence, a quantity, as of clothes, washed at once. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. A piece of ground washed by the action of a sea or river, or sometimes covered and sometimes left dry; the shallowest part of a river, or arm of the sea; also, a bog; a marsh; a fen; as, the washes in Lincolnshire. "The Wash of Edmonton so gay." --Cowper. [1913 Webster]
  • These Lincoln washes have devoured them. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. Substances collected and deposited by the action of water; as, the wash of a sewer, of a river, etc. [1913 Webster]
  • The wash of pastures, fields, commons, and roads, where rain water hath a long time settled. --Mortimer. [1913 Webster]
  • 4. Waste liquid, the refuse of food, the collection from washed dishes, etc., from a kitchen, often used as food for pigs. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • 5. (Distilling) (a) The fermented wort before the spirit is extracted. (b) A mixture of dunder, molasses, water, and scummings, used in the West Indies for distillation. --B. Edwards. [1913 Webster]
  • 6. That with which anything is washed, or wetted, smeared, tinted, etc., upon the surface. Specifically: [1913 Webster] (a) A liquid cosmetic for the complexion. [1913 Webster] (b) A liquid dentifrice. [1913 Webster] (c) A liquid preparation for the hair; as, a hair wash. [1913 Webster] (d) A medical preparation in a liquid form for external application; a lotion. [1913 Webster] (e) (Painting) A thin coat of color, esp. water color. [1913 Webster] (j) A thin coat of metal applied in a liquid form on any object, for beauty or preservation; -- called also washing. [1913 Webster +PJC]
  • 7. (Naut.) (a) The blade of an oar, or the thin part which enters the water. (b) The backward current or disturbed water caused by the action of oars, or of a steamer's screw or paddles, etc. [1913 Webster]
  • 8. The flow, swash, or breaking of a body of water, as a wave; also, the sound of it. [1913 Webster]
  • 9. Ten strikes, or bushels, of oysters. [Prov. Eng.] [1913 Webster]
  • 10. [Western U. S.] (Geol.) (a) Gravel and other rock d['e]bris transported and deposited by running water; coarse alluvium. (b) An alluvial cone formed by a stream at the base of a mountain. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
  • 11. The dry bed of an intermittent stream, sometimes at the bottom of a canyon; as, the Amargosa wash, Diamond wash; -- called also dry wash. [Western U. S.] [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
  • 12. (Arch.) The 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, as a carriage wash in a stable. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
  • 13. an action or situation in which the gains and losses are equal, or closely compensate each other. [PJC]
  • 14. (Aeronautics) the disturbance of the air left behind in the wake of a moving airplane or one of its parts. [PJC]
  • Wash ball, a ball of soap to be used in washing the hands or face. --Swift.
  • Wash barrel (Fisheries), a barrel nearly full of split mackerel, loosely put in, and afterward filled with salt water in order to soak the blood from the fish before salting.
  • Wash bottle. (Chem.) (a) A bottle partially filled with some liquid through which gases are passed for the purpose of purifying them, especially by removing soluble constituents. (b) A washing bottle. See under Washing.
  • Wash gilding. See Water gilding.
  • Wash leather, split sheepskin dressed with oil, in imitation of chamois, or shammy, and used for dusting, cleaning glass or plate, etc.; also, alumed, or buff, leather for soldiers' belts. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'Wash'

From: GCIDE
  • Wash \Wash\, v. i.
  • 1. To perform the act of ablution. [1913 Webster]
  • Wash in Jordan seven times. --2 Kings v. 10. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. To clean anything by rubbing or dipping it in water; to perform the business of cleansing clothes, ore, etc., in water. "She can wash and scour." --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. To bear without injury the operation of being washed; as, some calicoes do not wash. [Colloq.] [1913 Webster]
  • 4. To be wasted or worn away by the action of water, as by a running or overflowing stream, or by the dashing of the sea; -- said of road, a beach, etc. [1913 Webster]
  • 5. To use washes, as for the face or hair. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
  • 6. To move with a lapping or swashing sound, or the like; to lap; splash; as, to hear the water washing. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
  • 7. to be accepted as true or valid; to be proven true by subsequent evidence; -- usually used in the negative; as, his alibi won't wash. [informal] [PJC]

Definition of 'Wash'

From: GCIDE
  • Wash \Wash\, a.
  • 1. Washy; weak. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
  • Their bodies of so weak and wash a temper. --Beau. & Fl. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. Capable of being washed without injury; washable; as, wash goods. [Colloq.] [1913 Webster]

Synonyms of 'wash'

From: Moby Thesaurus

Words containing 'Wash'