Meanings
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1
verb
To clean something with water and usually soap.
I washed the dishes after dinner.
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2
verb
To carry something away by the force of moving water.
The flood washed away the small bridge.
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3
verb
To be suitable for washing without being damaged.
Does this sweater wash, or do I need to dry-clean it?
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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.
Thesaurus
Common collocations
Etymology
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…