WASHES
Noun
washes
plural of wash
Verb
washes
Third-person singular simple present indicative form of wash
Anagrams
• hawses, shewas
Source: Wiktionary
WASH
Wash, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Washed; p. pr. & vb. n. Washing.] Etym:
[OE. waschen, AS. wascan; akin to D. wasschen, G. waschen, OHG.
wascan, Icel. & Sw. vaska, Dan. vaske, and perhaps to E. water. sq.
root150.]
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.
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.
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.
Fresh-blown roses washed with dew. Milton.
[The landscape] washed with a cold, gray mist. Longfellow.
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.
Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins. Acts xxii. 16.
The tide will wash you off. Shak.
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. 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 superior gravity.
– To wash the hands of. See under Hand.
Wash, v. i.
1. To perform the act of ablution.
Wash in Jordan seven times. 2 Kings v. 10.
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.
3. To bear without injury the operation of being washed; as, some
calicoes do not wash. [Colloq.]
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.
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. "The Wash of Edmonton so gay." Cowper.
These Lincoln washes have devoured them. Shak.
3. Substances collected and deposited by the action of water; as, the
wash of a sewer, of a river, etc.
The wash of pastures, fields, commons, and roads, where rain water
hath a long time settled. Mortimer.
4. Waste liquid, the refuse of food, the collection from washed
dishes, etc., from a kitchen, often used as food for pigs. Shak.
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.
6. That with which anything is washed, or wetted, smeared, tinted,
etc., upon the surface. Specifically: --
(a) A liquid cosmetic for the complexion.
(b) A liquid dentifrice.
(c) A liquid preparation for the hair; as, a hair wash.
(d) A medical preparation in a liquid form for external application;
a lotion.
(e) (Painting) A thin coat of color, esp. water color. (j) A thin
coat of metal laid on anything for beauty or preservation.
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.
8. The flow, swash, or breaking of a body of water, as a wave; also,
the sound of it.
9. Ten strikes, or bushels, of oysters. [Prov. Eng.] 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.
Wash, a.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition