What is wash?

More definitions of "wash":

• (verb): Remove by the application of water or other liquid and soap or some other cleaning agent.
  Example: "Can you wash away the spots on the windows?"; "he managed to wash out the stains"
  Synonyms: wash out, wash off, wash away

• (verb): Apply a thin coating of paint, metal, etc., to.

• (verb): Move by or as if by water.
  Example: "The swollen river washed away the footbridge"

• (verb): Be capable of being washed.
  Example: "Does this material wash?"

• (verb): Admit to testing or proof.
  Example: "This silly excuse won't wash in traffic court"

• (noun): A thin coat of water-base paint.

• (noun): A watercolor made by applying a series of monochrome washes one over the other.
  Synonyms: wash drawing

• (verb): To cleanse (itself or another animal) by licking.
  Example: "The cat washes several times a day"

• (noun): The erosive process of washing away soil or gravel by water (as from a roadway).
  Synonyms: washout

• (noun): The flow of air that is driven backwards by an aircraft propeller.
  Synonyms: slipstream, airstream, race, backwash

• (verb): Cleanse (one's body) with soap and water.
  Synonyms: lave

• (noun): The dry bed of an intermittent stream (as at the bottom of a canyon).
  Synonyms: dry wash

• (verb): Make moist.
  Synonyms: moisten, dampen

• (verb): Cleanse with a cleaning agent, such as soap, and water.
  Example: "Wash the towels, please!"
  Synonyms: launder

• (noun): The work of cleansing (usually with soap and water).
  Synonyms: washing, lavation

• (noun): Garments or white goods that can be cleaned by laundering.
  Synonyms: laundry, washing, washables

• (verb): Form by erosion.
  Example: "The river washed a ravine into the mountainside"

• (verb): Separate dirt or gravel from (precious minerals).

• (noun): Any enterprise in which losses and gains cancel out.
  Example: "At the end of the year the accounting department showed that it was a wash"

• (verb): Wash or flow against.
  Synonyms: lave, lap

Famous quotes containing the word wash:

“When lovely woman stoops to folly,
And finds too late that men betray,
What charm can soothe her melancholy,
What art can wash her guilt away?

The only art her guilt to cover,
To hide her shame from every eye,
To give repentance to her lover,
And wring his bosom—is to die.”
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730?–1774)

“Now mark me how I will undo myself.
I give this heavy weight from off my head,
And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand,
The pride of kingly sway from out my heart.
With mine own tears I wash away my balm,
With mine own hands I give away my crown.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

“Even like two little bank-dividing brooks,
That wash the pebbles with their wanton streams,
And having ranged and searched a thousand nooks,
Meet both at length in silver-breasted Thames
Where in a greater current they conjoin:
So I my Best-Beloved’s am, so he is mine.”
—Francis Quarles (1592–1644)