GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English
last match results
Found 4 definitions
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Wash (wŏsh), 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. √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.”
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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.
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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”.
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Fresh-blown roses washed with dew. Milton.
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[The landscape] washed with a cold, gray mist. Longfellow.
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3. To waste or abrade by the force of water in motion; as, “heavy rains wash a road or an embankment”.
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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”.
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Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins. Acts xxii. 16.
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The tide will wash you off. Shak.
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5. To cover with a thin or watery coat of color; to tint lightly and thinly.
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6. To overlay with a thin coat of metal; as, “steel washed with silver”.
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7. To cause dephosphorisation of (molten pig iron) by adding substances containing iron oxide, and sometimes manganese oxide.
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8. To pass (a gas or gaseous mixture) through or over a liquid for the purpose of purifying it, esp. by removing soluble constituents.
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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.
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Wash, v. i.
1. To perform the act of ablution.
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Wash in Jordan seven times. 2 Kings v. 10.
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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.
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3. To bear without injury the operation of being washed; as, “some calicoes do not wash”. [Colloq.]
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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.
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5. To use washes, as for the face or hair.
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6. To move with a lapping or swashing sound, or the like; to lap; splash; as, “to hear the water washing”.
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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]
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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.
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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.
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These Lincoln washes have devoured them. Shak.
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3. Substances collected and deposited by the action of water; as, “the wash of a sewer, of a river, etc.”
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The wash of pastures, fields, commons, and roads, where rain water hath a long time settled. Mortimer.
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4. Waste liquid, the refuse of food, the collection from washed dishes, etc., from a kitchen, often used as food for pigs. Shak.
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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.
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6. That with which anything is washed, or wetted, smeared, tinted, etc., upon the surface. Specifically: --
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(a) A liquid cosmetic for the complexion.
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(b) A liquid dentifrice.
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(c) A liquid preparation for the hair; as, “a hair wash”.
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(d) A medical preparation in a liquid form for external application; a lotion.
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(e) (Painting) A thin coat of color, esp. water color.
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(j) A thin coat of metal applied in a liquid form on any object, for beauty or preservation; -- called also washing.
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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.
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8. The flow, swash, or breaking of a body of water, as a wave; also, the sound of it.
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9. Ten strikes, or bushels, of oysters. [Prov. Eng.]
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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.
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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.]
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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.
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13. an action or situation in which the gains and losses are equal, or closely compensate each other.
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14. (Aeronautics) the disturbance of the air left behind in the wake of a moving airplane or one of its parts.
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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.
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Wash, a.
1. Washy; weak. [Obs.]
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Their bodies of so weak and wash a temper. Beau. & Fl.
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2. Capable of being washed without injury; washable; as, “wash goods”. [Colloq.]
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