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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

wash.

To clean with water.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/wɒʃ/Received-Pronunciation/wɛʃ/Northumbria/wɑʃ/General-American/wɔʃ/dialectal
  1. To clean with water.

    transitive
    The car is so dirty, we need to wash it.
    Dishwashers wash dishes way more efficiently than most humans.
  2. To carry away or erode by the force of water in motion.

    transitive
    Don't pour that in the drain; it will wash downstream.
    Heavy rains wash a road or an embankment.
  3. To be eroded or carried away by the action of water.

    intransitive
  4. To clean oneself with water.

    intransitive
    I wash every morning after getting up.
  5. To cover with water or any liquid; to wet; to fall on and moisten.

    transitive
    Waves wash the shore.
  6. To move with a lapping or swashing sound; to lap or splash.

    intransitive
    to hear the water washing
  7. To withstand being washed without impairment, as clothing, especially dyed clothing.

    intransitive
  8. To be cogent, convincing; to withstand critique.

    figuratively · intransitive
  9. To bear without damage the operation of being washed; to be suitable for washing.

    intransitive
    Some calicoes do not wash.
  10. To cover with a thin or watery coat of colour; to tint lightly and thinly.

    transitive
  11. To overlay with a thin coat of metal.

    transitive
    steel washed with silver
  12. To pass or extract (a gas or gaseous mixture) through or over a liquid for the purpose of purifying it, especially by removing soluble constituents.

    transitive
  13. To separate valuable material (such as gold) from worthless material by the action of flowing water.

  14. To cause dephosphorization of (molten pig iron) by adding substances containing iron oxide, and sometimes manganese oxide.

    transitive
  15. To mix up tiles (before a new game) to make them random; to shuffle.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *wed- Proto-Indo-European *-sḱéti Proto-Indo-European *wodsḱéti Proto-Germanic *waskaną Proto-West Germanic *waskan Old English wascan Middle English wasshen English wash From Middle English wasshen, waschen, weschen (“to wash”), from Old English wascan (“to wash”), from Proto-West Germanic *waskan (“to wash”), from Proto-Germanic *waskaną, *watskaną (“to wash, get wet”), from Proto-Indo-European *wed- (“wet, water”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian waaske (“to wash”), West Frisian waskje (“to wash”), Dutch wassen, wasschen (“to wash”), Low German waschen (“to wash”), German waschen (“to wash”), Danish vaske (“to wash”), Faroese and Icelandic vaska (“to wash”), Norwegian Bokmål vaske (“to wash”), Norwegian Nynorsk vaske, vaska (“to wash”), Swedish vaska (“to wash”). The noun is cognate with Saterland Frisian Waaske (“wash”), West Frisian wask (“wash”), Dutch was (“wash”), Low German Wask, Waske (“wash”), German Wäsche (“wash”), Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish vask (“wash”).

noun/wɒʃ/Received-Pronunciation/wɛʃ/Northumbria/wɑʃ/General-American/wɔʃ/dialectal
  1. The process or an instance of washing or being washed by water or other liquid.

    countable · uncountable
    I'm going to have a quick wash before coming to bed.
    My jacket needs a wash.
  2. A liquid used for washing.

    countable · uncountable
  3. A lotion or other liquid with medicinal or hygienic properties.

    countable · uncountable
    mouth wash
    hand wash
  4. The quantity of clothes washed at a time.

    countable · uncountable
    There's a lot in that wash: maybe you should split it into two piles.
  5. A smooth and translucent painting created using a paintbrush holding a large amount of solvent and a small amount of paint.

    countable · uncountable
  6. The breaking of waves on the shore; the onwards rush of shallow water towards a beach.

    countable · uncountable
    I could hear the wash of the wave.
  7. The bow wave, wake, or vortex of an object moving in a fluid, in particular: The bow wave or wake of a moving ship, or the vortex from its screws.

    countable · uncountable
    The ship left a big wash
    Sail away from the wash to avoid rocking the boat.
  8. The bow wave, wake, or vortex of an object moving in a fluid, in particular: The turbulence left in the air by a moving airplane.

    countable · uncountable
  9. The bow wave, wake, or vortex of an object moving in a fluid, in particular: The backward current or disturbed water caused by the action of oars, or of a steamer's screw or paddles, etc.

    countable · uncountable
  10. The blade of an oar.

    countable · uncountable
  11. Ground washed away to the sea or a river.

    countable · uncountable
  12. A piece of ground washed by the action of water, or sometimes covered and sometimes left dry; the shallowest part of a river, or arm of the sea; also, a bog; a marsh.

    countable · uncountable
  13. A shallow body of water.

    countable · uncountable
  14. In arid and semi-arid regions, the normally dry bed of an intermittent or ephemeral stream.

    countable · uncountable
  15. A situation in which gains and losses or advantages and disadvantages are equivalent, or in which there is no net change.

    countable · idiomatic · uncountable
  16. A fictitious kind of sale of stock or other securities between parties of one interest, or by a broker who is both buyer and seller, and who minds his own interest rather than that of his clients.

    countable · slang · uncountable
  17. Waste liquid, the refuse of food, the collection from washed dishes, etc., from a kitchen, often used as food for pigs; pigwash.

    countable · uncountable
  18. In distilling, the fermented wort before the spirit is extracted.

    countable · uncountable
  19. A mixture of dunder, molasses, water, and scummings, used in the West Indies for distillation.

    countable · uncountable
  20. A thin coat of paint or metal laid on anything for beauty or preservation.

    countable · uncountable
  21. Ten strikes, or bushels, of oysters.

    countable · uncountable
  22. 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.

    countable · uncountable
    a carriage wash in a stable
  23. A lighting effect that fills a scene with a chosen colour.

    countable · uncountable
  24. A lighting fixture that can cast a wide beam of light to evenly fill an area with light, as opposed to a spotlight.

    countable · uncountable
  25. A total failure; a washout.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *wed- Proto-Indo-European *-sḱéti Proto-Indo-European *wodsḱéti Proto-Germanic *waskaną Proto-West Germanic *waskan Old English wascan Middle English wasshen English wash From Middle English wasshen, waschen, weschen (“to wash”), from Old English wascan (“to wash”), from Proto-West Germanic *waskan (“to wash”), from Proto-Germanic *waskaną, *watskaną (“to wash, get wet”), from Proto-Indo-European *wed- (“wet, water”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian waaske (“to wash”), West Frisian waskje (“to wash”), Dutch wassen, wasschen (“to wash”), Low German waschen (“to wash”), German waschen (“to wash”), Danish vaske (“to wash”), Faroese and Icelandic vaska (“to wash”), Norwegian Bokmål vaske (“to wash”), Norwegian Nynorsk vaske, vaska (“to wash”), Swedish vaska (“to wash”). The noun is cognate with Saterland Frisian Waaske (“wash”), West Frisian wask (“wash”), Dutch was (“wash”), Low German Wask, Waske (“wash”), German Wäsche (“wash”), Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish vask (“wash”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.