Wash | Webster's Dictionary (1865)

Wash, v. t.

verbtransitive

(wŏsh), v. t. [imp. & p. p. WASHED (wŏsht); p. pr. & vb. n. WASHING.] [A-S. wascan, awæscan, wæcan, O. Sax. waskan, L. Ger. wasken, Sw. vaska, Dan. vaske, O. H. Ger. wascan, wasgan, wazkan, M. & N. H. Ger. waschen, D. wasschen.]

Sense 1. To cleanse by ablution, or by dipping or rubbing in water; to apply water or liquid to for the purpose of cleansing; to scrub with water, &c.; 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, and the like.

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; see ye to it. Matt. xxvii. 24.

Sense 2. To cover with water; 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.

Sense 3. To waste or abrade by the force of water in motion; as, heavy rains wash a road or embankment.

Sense 4. To remove by washing; to take away by the action of water; to drag or draw off;—used with away, off, out, &c.

The tide will wash you off. Shak.

Sense 5. To cover with a thin or watery coat of color; to tint lightly and thinly.

Sense 6. To overlay with a thin coat of metal; as, steel washed with silver.

To wash gold, &c., 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 a ship (Naut.), to bring all her guns to one side to make her heel, and then to wash and scrape her side.

Wash, v. i.

verbintransitive

(wŏsh), v. i. 1. To perform the act of ablution.

Wash in Jordan seven times. 2 Kings v. 10.

Sense 2. To perform the business of cleansing clothes in water.

She can wash and scour. Shak.

Sense 3. To bear the operation of being washed; as, the goods or the colors do not wash well. [Colloq.]

Sense 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.

Wash, n.

noun

(wŏsh), n. [A-S. wæsc, gewæsc.]

The act of washing, or ablution; a cleansing, wetting, or dashing with water; hence, the quantity of clothes washed at once.
A piece of ground washed by the action of a sea or river, or sometimes covered and sometimes left dry; also, 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.
Substances collected and deposited by the action of water; as, the wash of a sewer, of a river, and the like.
Waste liquor, the refuse of food, the collection from cleansed dishes, &c., from a kitchen.
(Distilling.) (a.) The fermented wort from which the spirit is extracted. (b.) A mixture of dunder, molasses, water, and scummings, for distillation. Edwards.
That with which any thing is washed, or wetted, smeared, tinted, coated, &c., upon the surface; as, (a.) A cosmetic for the complexion; also, a liquid dentifrice; as, a tooth-wash; also, a preparation for the hair; as, a hair-wash, and the like. (b.) A medical preparation in a liquid form for external application; a lotion. (c.) A thin coat of color, spread over spaces of a picture. (d.) A thin coat of metal, as tin or of other substances, laid on any thing for beauty or preservation.
(Naut.) The blade of an oar, or the thin part which enters the water.
Ten strikes of oysters. Simmonds.

Wash, a.

adjective

a. Washy; weak. [Obs.] “Their bodies of so weak and wash a temper.” Beau. & Fl.