Diccionario ingles.comDiccionario ingles.com
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home 		English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Wash   /wɑʃ/   Listen
verb
Wash  v. t.  (past & past part. washed; pres. part. washing)  
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. "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."
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. "Fresh-blown roses washed with dew." "(The landscape) washed with a cold, gray mist."
3.
To waste or abrade by the force of water in motion; as, heavy rains wash a road or an embankment.
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. "Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins." "The tide will wash you off."
5.
To cover with a thin or watery coat of color; to tint lightly and thinly.
6.
To overlay with a thin coat of metal; as, steel washed with silver.
7.
To cause dephosphorisation of (molten pig iron) by adding substances containing iron oxide, and sometimes manganese oxide.
8.
To pass (a gas or gaseous mixture) through or over a liquid for the purpose of purifying it, esp. by removing soluble constituents.
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.


Wash  v. i.  
1.
To perform the act of ablution. "Wash in Jordan seven times."
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."
3.
To bear without injury the operation of being washed; as, some calicoes do not wash. (Colloq.)
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.
5.
To use washes, as for the face or hair.
6.
To move with a lapping or swashing sound, or the like; to lap; splash; as, to hear the water washing.
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)


noun
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.
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." "These Lincoln washes have devoured them."
3.
Substances collected and deposited by the action of water; as, the wash of a sewer, of a river, etc. "The wash of pastures, fields, commons, and roads, where rain water hath a long time settled."
4.
Waste liquid, the refuse of food, the collection from washed dishes, etc., from a kitchen, often used as food for pigs.
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.
6.
That with which anything is washed, or wetted, smeared, tinted, etc., upon the surface. Specifically:
(a)
A liquid cosmetic for the complexion.
(b)
A liquid dentifrice.
(c)
A liquid preparation for the hair; as, a hair wash.
(d)
A medical preparation in a liquid form for external application; a lotion.
(e)
(Painting) A thin coat of color, esp. water color.
(f)
A thin coat of metal applied in a liquid form on any object, for beauty or preservation; called also washing.
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.
8.
The flow, swash, or breaking of a body of water, as a wave; also, the sound of it.
9.
Ten strikes, or bushels, of oysters. (Prov. Eng.)
10.
(Western U. S.) (Geol.)
(a)
Gravel and other rock débris transported and deposited by running water; coarse alluvium.
(b)
An alluvial cone formed by a stream at the base of a mountain.
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.)
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.
13.
An action or situation in which the gains and losses are equal, or closely compensate each other.
14.
(Aeronautics) The disturbance of the air left behind in the wake of a moving airplane or one of its parts.
Wash ball, a ball of soap to be used in washing the hands or face.
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.


adjective
Wash  adj.  
1.
Washy; weak. (Obs.) "Their bodies of so weak and wash a temper."
2.
Capable of being washed without injury; washable; as, wash goods. (Colloq.)





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words


Share |




"Wash" Quotes from Famous Books



... seaport of the Thames. Such a bridge would, again, concentrate upon itself the traffic of all that important and formerly wealthy part of the island which bulges out to the east between the estuary of the Thames and the Wash, and which must necessarily have desired communication both with the still wealthier southern portion and with the Continent. But, more important than this, London Bridge also concentrated upon itself all the up-country traffic in ...
— The Historic Thames • Hilaire Belloc
... world, gets to be thought narrowness, and becomes a hindrance to our entering. As Naaman's servant put a common-sense question to him, so may I to you. 'If the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it?' Ay! that you would! 'How much more when He says "Wash and be clean!"' There is only one way of getting dirt off, and that is by water. There is only one way of getting sin off, and that is by the blood of Jesus Christ. There is only one way of having that blood applied to your heart, and that is trusting Him. 'The common salvation' becomes ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture: Romans Corinthians (To II Corinthians, Chap. V) • Alexander Maclaren
... that won't wash, you know," said Percy. "Anyhow, it's nonsense you being so precious stiff with him; I'm sure he's as ...
— A Dog with a Bad Name • Talbot Baines Reed
... went ashore to wash our clothes. The others went with them, because we do not wish to annoy any one, and desired to be alone that we might celebrate the Lord's Supper. I could not leave the ship, but was with ...
— The Moravians in Georgia - 1735-1740 • Adelaide L. Fries
... seed of work?—even though the sprouting was so long put off. Everything, I have mentioned, had come at this time to be acceptedly, though far from braggingly, put off; and the ministrations of M. Ansiot really wash themselves over with the weak mixture that had begun to spread for me, to immensity, during that summer day or two of our earlier residence when, betraying strange pains and apprehensions, I was with all decision put to bed. ...
— A Small Boy and Others • Henry James


More quotes...


Copyright © 2025 Diccionario ingles.com