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.

• "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."