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Definition of "wash" []

  • To cleanse, using water or other liquid, usually with soap, detergent, or bleach, by immersing, dipping, rubbing, or scrubbing: wash one's hands; wash windows. (verb-transitive)
  • To soak, rinse out, and remove (dirt or stain) with or as if with water: wash grease out of overalls. (verb-transitive)
  • To make moist or wet; drench: Tears washed the child's cheeks. (verb-transitive)
  • To flow over, against, or past: waves that washed the sandy shores. (verb-transitive)
  • To carry, erode, remove, or destroy by the action of moving water: Heavy rains washed the topsoil away. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "wash" in a sentence
  • "Then a throbbing in his head and a sensation of smarting assailed him, but he did not stir, for his legs were cramped; and _wash, wash, wash_, the waters were sweeping along nearly to his chest."
  • "My mom took in wash from the brothels in Searchlight, so I have some idea of what it's like to struggle."
  • "This area is what we refer to as a wash, meaning it is a place that is -- I guess you could say it's kind of a roadway for heavy rainwater, for floodwaters to go through and then move out towards the open ground, out towards the desert, and then dissipate."