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Tip: Click Thesaurus above for synonyms. Also, follow synonym links within the dictionary to find definitions from other sources.

1. WordNet® 3.0 (2006)
wash
    n 1: a thin coat of water-base paint
    2: the work of cleansing (usually with soap and water) [syn:
       wash, washing, lavation]
    3: the dry bed of an intermittent stream (as at the bottom of a
       canyon) [syn: wash, dry wash]
    4: 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]
    5: the flow of air that is driven backwards by an aircraft
       propeller [syn: slipstream, airstream, race,
       backwash, wash]
    6: a watercolor made by applying a series of monochrome washes
       one over the other [syn: wash, wash drawing]
    7: garments or white goods that can be cleaned by laundering
       [syn: laundry, wash, washing, washables]
    8: any enterprise in which losses and gains cancel out; "at the
       end of the year the accounting department showed that it was
       a wash"
    v 1: clean with some chemical process [syn: wash, rinse]
    2: cleanse (one's body) with soap and water [syn: wash,
       lave]
    3: cleanse with a cleaning agent, such as soap, and water; "Wash
       the towels, please!" [syn: wash, launder]
    4: move by or as if by water; "The swollen river washed away the
       footbridge"
    5: be capable of being washed; "Does this material wash?"
    6: admit to testing or proof; "This silly excuse won't wash in
       traffic court"
    7: separate dirt or gravel from (precious minerals)
    8: apply a thin coating of paint, metal, etc., to
    9: 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]
    10: form by erosion; "The river washed a ravine into the
        mountainside"
    11: make moist; "The dew moistened the meadows" [syn: moisten,
        wash, dampen]
    12: wash or flow against; "the waves laved the shore" [syn:
        lave, lap, wash]
    13: to cleanse (itself or another animal) by licking; "The cat
        washes several times a day"

2. The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
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]

3. The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
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]

4. The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
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]

5. The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
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]

Thesaurus Results for Wash:

1. Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
ablution, abstergent, acrylic painting, apply paint, aquarelle, babble, backwash, baptize, bath, bathe, baygall, be consistent, be the case, be true, be truthful, bedaub, bedizen, begild, besmear, bog, bottom, bottomland, bottoms, brew, brush on paint, bubble, buffalo wallow, burble, calcimine, canvas, cathartic, chromogen, cleaner, cleaning agent, cleaning out, cleaning solvent, cleanser, cleansing cream, coat, coat of paint, coating, cold cream, color, color filter, color gelatin, colorant, coloring, complexion, condensation trail, conform to fact, contrail, cover, cream, dab, daub, dead-color, deep-dye, dentifrice, depurant, detergent, dip, distemper, diuretic, double-dye, douche, douching, drench, drier, drouk, dye, dyestuff, easel-picture, elution, elutriation, emblazon, emetic, enamel, encaustic cerography, encaustic painting, enema, engild, everglade, exhaust, exterior paint, face, fast-dye, fen, fenland, finger painting, flat coat, flat wash, float, floor enamel, flower painting, flush, flush out, flushing, flushing out, fresco, fresco painting, gargle, genre painting, gild, glade, glaze, gloss, gouache, grain, grisaille, ground, guggle, gurgle, hog wallow, hold, hold good, hold together, hold true, hold up, hold water, holm, holystone, hue, illuminate, illumination, illustration, imbrue, imbue, impasto, impregnate, infiltrate, infuse, ingrain, inject, interior paint, irrigate, irrigation, japan, lacquer, lap, lapping, lather, lathering, launder, laundering, laundry, lavabo, lavage, lavation, lave, laving, lay on color, leach, lip, lixiviate, lotion, macerate, marais, marish, marsh, marshland, meadow, medium, mere, mire, monochrome, moor, moorland, mop, mop up, mopping, mopping up, morass, moss, mouthwash, mud, mud flat, mural painting, nauseant, oil, oil painting, opaque color, paint, painting, parget, peat bog, percolate, permeate, picturization, pigment, plash, portraiture, poster painting, prime, prime coat, primer, priming, prove out, prove to be, prove true, pumice stone, purgative, purge, purifier, purl, quagmire, quicksand, remain valid, ride, rinse, rinse out, rinsing, ripple, ritually immerse, salt marsh, saturate, scour, scouring, scrub, scrub up, scrubbing, scrubbing up, seethe, shade, shadow, shampoo, shellac, shower, slob land, slop on paint, slosh, slough, sluice, sluice out, smear, soak, soap, soaping, sodden, solvent, sop, sough, souse, splash, sponge, sponging, stain, stand the test, stand up, steep, stick together, stipple, stream, sump, swab, swabbing, swale, swamp, swampland, swash, swish, synthetic detergent, syringe, taiga, tempera, the brush, thinner, tinct, tinction, tincture, tinge, tint, toivel, tone, tooth powder, toothpaste, track, transparent color, trill, tub, tubbing, turpentine, turps, undercoat, undercoating, vapor trail, varnish, vehicle, vortex, wake, wallow, wash coat, wash drawing, wash out, wash up, washday, washing, washing up, washout, washup, water, waterlog, whitewash, wiping up
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