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1. Cleanse with a cleaning agent, such as soap, and water
   "Wash the towels, please!";
   - launder
    
2. Cleanse (one's body) with soap and water
   - lave
    
3. Remove by the application of water or other liquid and soap or some other cleaning agent
   "he washed the dirt from his coat"; "The nurse washed away the blood"; "Can you wash away the spots on the windows?"; "he managed to wash out the stains"; "he washed off the dirt from his coat";
   - wash out, wash off, wash away
    
4. Move by or as if by water
   "The swollen river washed away the footbridge"
    
5. Be capable of being washed
   "Does this material wash?"
    
6. [informal] Admit to testing or proof
   "This silly excuse won't wash in traffic court"
    
7. Apply a thin coating of paint, metal, etc., to
    
8. Form by erosion
   "The river washed a ravine into the mountainside"
    
9. [literary] Make moist
   "The dew washed the meadows";
   - moisten, dampen
    
10. (of a liquid, esp. water) flow against
    "the waves washed the shore";
    - lave, lap
     
11. To cleanse (itself or another animal) by licking
    "The cat washes several times a day"
     
12. Clean with some chemical process
    - rinse
     
13. (mining) wash by removing particles
    "Wash ores";
    - hush
     
14. Separate dirt or gravel from (precious minerals)

1. The work of cleansing (usually with soap and water)
   - washing, lavation
    
2. A thin coat of water-base paint
    
3. The dry bed of an intermittent stream (as at the bottom of a canyon)
   - dry wash
    
4. The erosive process of washing away soil or gravel by water (as from a roadway)
   - washout
    
5. The flow of air that is driven backwards by an aircraft propeller
   - slipstream, airstream, race, backwash
    
6. A watercolour made by applying a series of monochrome washes one over the other
   - wash drawing
    
7. Garments or white goods that can be cleaned by laundering
   - laundry, washing, washables
    
8. [N. Amer, informal] Any enterprise in which losses and gains cancel out
   "at the end of the year the accounting department showed that it was a wash"

1. A state in northwestern United States on the Pacific with capital Olympia
   - Washington, Evergreen State, WA

Derived forms: washing, washed, washes

See also: wash up [N. Amer]

Type of: American state, be, business activity, clean, cleanse, commercial activity, cover, creek bed, displace, eat away, erode, flow, fret, garment, household linen, make clean, manchester [Austral, NZ], move, process, remove, separate, serve, soil erosion, stand, streambed, swear out, take, take away, water-base paint, watercolor [US], water-color [US], watercolour [Brit, Cdn], water-colour [Brit, Cdn], wet, white goods, withdraw, work

Part of: America, the States, U.S., U.S.A., United States, United States of America, US, USA

Encyclopedia: Wash, Martha