wash

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To clean something with water and usually soap.

   I washed the dishes after dinner.

2. 2
   verb

   To carry something away by the force of moving water.

   The flood washed away the small bridge.

3. 3
   verb

   To be suitable for washing without being damaged.

   Does this sweater wash, or do I need to dry-clean it?

4. 4
   noun

   A situation in which gains and losses cancel each other out, so there is no overall difference.

   After all the costs, the deal was a wash.

Common collocations

• wash clothes Verb + noun
• wash hair Verb + noun
• wash one's face Verb + noun
• wash off Verb + adverb

From Middle English wasshen, waschen, weschen (“to wash”), from Old English wascan (“to wash”), from Proto-West Germanic *waskan (“to wash”), from Proto-Germanic *waskaną, *watskaną (“to wash, get wet”), from Proto-Indo-European *wed- (“wet, water”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian waaske (“to wash”), West Frisian waskje (“to wash”), Dutch wassen, wasschen (“to wash”), Low German waschen (“to wash”), German waschen (“to wash”), Danish vaske (“to wash”), Faroese and Icelandic vaska (“to wash”), Norwegian Bokmål vaske (“to wash”), Norwegian Nynorsk vaske, vaska (“to wash”), Swedish vaska (“to was…

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images