washing

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Clothes and other items that need to be, are being, or have been washed.

   My mother used to do the washing on a Monday.

2. 2
   noun

   The act of cleaning something with water, usually with soap.

   A good washing got the mud off the boots.

Inherited from Middle English waschyng /wasschinge /wasschynge /wassende /wesschinge, from Old English *wæsċende /*wasċende, from Proto-West Germanic *waskandī, from Proto-Germanic *waskandz (“washing”), present participle of *waskaną (“to wash”). By surface analysis, wash + -ing. Cognate with Dutch wassend, German waschend, Swedish vaskande.

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