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washing.

The action of the verb to wash.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈwɒʃ.ɪŋ/UK/ˈwɑʃ.ɪŋ/General-American/ˈwɔʃ.ɪŋ/Australia
  1. The action of the verb to wash.

    countable
  2. Clothing, bedlinen or soft furnishings that have been, are currently being, or are to be washed; laundry.

    Australia · New-Zealand · UK · uncountable
    My mother used to do the washing on a Monday.
  3. The residue after an ore, etc, has been washed.

    countable · in-plural · often
    The washings have a higher concentration of metal.
  4. The liquid used to wash an ore.

    countable · uncountable
  5. A place where a precious metal found in gravel is separated from lighter material by washing.

    countable · uncountable
  6. A thin covering or coat.

    countable · uncountable
  7. A fraudulent transaction in which the same stock is simultaneously bought and sold for the purpose of manipulating the market.

    countable · uncountable
  8. The covering of a piece with an infusible powder, which prevents it from sticking to its supports, while receiving the glaze.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle English waschynge /wasshynge /weschynge, from Old English *wæsċing /*weasċing (attested in weasċingweġ), from Proto-West Germanic *waskingu. By surface analysis, wash + -ing. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Waaskenge (“washing”), West Frisian wasking (“washing”), Dutch wassing (“washing”), German Waschung (“washing”).

verb/ˈwɒʃ.ɪŋ/UK/ˈwɑʃ.ɪŋ/General-American/ˈwɔʃ.ɪŋ/Australia
  1. present participle and gerund of wash

    form-of · gerund · participle · present
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle English waschyng /wasschinge /wasschynge /wassende /wesschinge, from Old English *wæsċende /*wasċende, from Proto-West Germanic *waskandī, from Proto-Germanic *waskandz (“washing”), present participle of *waskaną (“to wash”). By surface analysis, wash + -ing. Cognate with Dutch wassend, German waschend, Swedish vaskande.

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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.