Definition of wash

• v. t. - 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.
• v. t. - 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.
• v. t. - To waste or abrade by the force of water in motion; as, heavy rains wash a road or an embankment.
• v. t. - 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.
• v. t. - To cover with a thin or watery coat of color; to tint lightly and thinly.
• v. t. - To overlay with a thin coat of metal; as, steel washed with silver.
• v. i. - To perform the act of ablution.
• v. i. - To clean anything by rubbing or dipping it in water; to perform the business of cleansing clothes, ore, etc., in water.
• v. i. - To bear without injury the operation of being washed; as, some calicoes do not wash.
• v. i. - 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.
• n. - The act of washing; an ablution; a cleansing, wetting, or dashing with water; hence, a quantity, as of clothes, washed at once.
• n. - 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.
• n. - Substances collected and deposited by the action of water; as, the wash of a sewer, of a river, etc.
• n. - Waste liquid, the refuse of food, the collection from washed dishes, etc., from a kitchen, often used as food for pigs.
• n. - The fermented wort before the spirit is extracted.
• n. - A mixture of dunder, molasses, water, and scummings, used in the West Indies for distillation.
• n. - That with which anything is washed, or wetted, smeared, tinted, etc., upon the surface.
• n. - A liquid cosmetic for the complexion.
• n. - A liquid dentifrice.
• n. - A liquid preparation for the hair; as, a hair wash.
• n. - A medical preparation in a liquid form for external application; a lotion.
• n. - A thin coat of color, esp. water color.
• n. - A thin coat of metal laid on anything for beauty or preservation.
• n. - The blade of an oar, or the thin part which enters the water.
• n. - The backward current or disturbed water caused by the action of oars, or of a steamer's screw or paddles, etc.
• n. - The flow, swash, or breaking of a body of water, as a wave; also, the sound of it.
• n. - Ten strikes, or bushels, of oysters.
• a. - Washy; weak.
• a. - Capable of being washed without injury; washable; as, wash goods.