v. t. | 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
v. i. | 1. | To perform the act of ablution. |
| 2. | To clean anything by rubbing or dipping it in water; to perform the business of cleansing clothes, ore, etc., in water. |
| 3. | To bear without injury the operation of being washed; as, some calicoes do not wash. |
| 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. |
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. |
| 3. | Substances collected and deposited by the action of water; as, the wash of a sewer, of a river, etc. |
| 4. | Waste liquid, the refuse of food, the collection from washed dishes, etc., from a kitchen, often used as food for pigs. |
| 5. | (Distilling) The fermented wort before the spirit is extracted. |
| 6. | That with which anything is washed, or wetted, smeared, tinted, etc., upon the surface. |
| 7. | A liquid cosmetic for the complexion. |
| 7. | (Naut.) The blade of an oar, or the thin part which enters the water. |
| 8. | A liquid dentifrice. |
| 8. | The flow, swash, or breaking of a body of water, as a wave; also, the sound of it. |
| 9. | A liquid preparation for the hair; as, a hair wash. |
| 9. | Ten strikes, or bushels, of oysters. |
| 10. | A medical preparation in a liquid form for external application; a lotion. |
| 10. | (Geol.) Gravel and other rock débris transported and deposited by running water; coarse alluvium. |
| 11. | (Painting) A thin coat of color, esp. water color. |
| 11. | The dry bed of an intermittent stream, sometimes at the bottom of a cañon; as, the Amargosa wash, Diamond wash; - called also dry wash. |
| 12. | A thin coat of metal applied in a liquid form on any object, for beauty or preservation; - called also washing. |
| 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. |
a. | 1. | Washy; weak. |
| 2. | Capable of being washed without injury; washable; as, wash goods. |