Wash
WordNet
noun
(1) The work of cleansing (usually with soap and water)
(2) Any enterprise in which losses and gains cancel out
"At the end of the year the accounting department showed that it was a wash"
(3) Garments or white goods that can be cleaned by laundering
(4) A watercolor made by applying a series of monochrome washes one over the other
(5) A thin coat of water-base paint
(6) The dry bed of an intermittent stream (as at the bottom of a canyon)
(7) The flow of air that is driven backwards by an aircraft propeller
(8) 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"
verb
(9) To cleanse (itself or another animal) by licking
"The cat washes several times a day"
(10) Cleanse (one's body) with soap and water
(11) Wash or flow against
"The waves laved the shore"
(12) Make moist
"The dew moistened the meadows"
(13) Form by erosion
"The river washed a ravine into the mountainside"
(14) 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"
(15) Clean with some chemical process
(16) Cleanse with a cleaning agent, such as soap, and water
"Wash the towels, please!"
(17) Separate dirt or gravel from (precious minerals)
(18) Move by or as if by water
"The swollen river washed away the footbridge"
(19) Be capable of being washed
"Does this material wash?"
WiktionaryText
Etymology
From
Verb
- To clean with water.
- To move by the force of water in motion (as in the flood washed away houses).
- To separate valuable material (such as gold) from worthless material by the action of flowing water.
- (intransitive) To clean oneself with water.
- (intransitive) To be eroded or carried away by the action of water.
Noun
- The process or an instance of washing or being washed by water or other liquid.
- A liquid used for washing.
- The quantity of clothes washed at a time.
- The sound of breaking of the seas, e.g., on the shore.
- The wake of a moving ship.
- The turbulence left in the air by a moving airplane.
- A lotion or other liquid with medicinal or hygienic properties.
- Ground washed away to the sea or a river.
- A shallow body of water.
- In arid and semi-arid regions, the normally dry bed of an intermittent or ephemeral stream; an arroyo; wadi
- 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”)
- 1999, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert
- ...though the wash may carry surface water for only a few hours a year.
- 2005, Le Hayes, Pilgrims in the Desert: The Early History of the East Mojave 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
- 1997, Stanley Desmond Smith, et al. Physiological Ecology of North American Desert Plants, Nature
- A lack of progress or regress; no change
- His first week at the new job was a wash, since he spent so much time learning the system instead of using it.