WASH, v.t. [G.]

1. Alluvial matter; substances collected and deposited by water; as, the wash of a river.
2. A bog; a marsh; a fen. Neptune's salt wash. – Shak.
3. A cosmetic; as, a wash for the face, to help the complexion.
4. A lotion; a medical liquid preparation for external application.
5. A superficial stain or color. – Collier.
6. Waste liquor of a kitchen for hogs.
7. The act of washing the clothes of a family; or the whole quantity washed at once. There is a great wash, or a small wash.
8. With distillers, the fermentable liquor made by dissolving the proper subject for fermentation and distillation in common water. In the distillery of malt, the wash is made by mixing the water but, with the malt ground into meal. – Cyc.
9. The shallow part of a river, or arm of the sea; as, the washes in Lincolnshire. – Cyc.
10. The blade of an oar; the thin part which enters the water, and by whose impulse the boat is moved.
11. The color laid on a picture to vary its tints.
12. A substance laid on boards or other work for beauty or preservation.
13. A thin coat of metal.
14. In the West Indies, a mixture of dunder, melasses, water, and scummings, for distillation. – Edwards's West Indies.

1. To perform the act of ablution. Wash in Jordan seven times. 2 Kings v.
2. To perform the business of cleansing clothes in water. She can wash and scour. – Shak. To wash off, in calico-printing, to soak and rinse printed calicoes, to dissolve and remove the gum and paste. – Cyc.

1. To cleanse by ablution, or by rubbing in water; as, to wash the hands or the body; to wash garments.
2. To wet; to fall on and moisten; as, the rain washes the flowers or plants.
3. To overflow. The tides wash the meadows.
4. To overflow or dash against; to cover with water; as, the waves wash the strand or shore; the sea washes the rocks on the shore or beach.
5. To scrub in water; as, to wash a deck or a floor.
6. To separate extraneous matter from; as, to wash ore; to wash grain.
7. In painting, to lay a color over any work with a pencil, to give it the proper tints, and make it appear more natural. Thus work, is washed with a pale red to imitate brick, &c.
8. To rub over with some liquid substance; as, to wash trees for removing insects or diseases.
9. To squeeze and cleanse in water; as, to wash wool. So sheep are said to be washed, when they are immersed in water and their wool squeezed, by which means it is cleansed.
10. To cleanse by a current of water; as, showers wash the streets.
11. To overlay with a thin coat of metal; as, steel washed with silver.
12. To purify from the pollution of sin. But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified. 1 Cor. vi. To wash a ship, to bring all her guns to one side to make her heel, and then to wash and scrape her side.

1. To cleanse by ablution, or dipping or rubbing in water; to apply water or other liquid to for the purpose of cleansing; to scrub with water, etc., or as with water; as, to wash the hands or body; to wash garments; to wash sheep or wool; to wash the pavement or floor; to wash the bark of trees.
   
   

   When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, . . . he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person. Matt. xxvii. 24.

2. To perform the act of ablution.
   
   

   Wash in Jordan seven times. 2 Kings v. 10.

3. The act of washing; an ablution; a cleansing, wetting, or dashing with water; hence, a quantity, as of clothes, washed at once.
4. Washy; weak.
   
   
   [Obs.]

   Their bodies of so weak and wash a temper. Beau. *** Fl.

5. To cause dephosphorisation of (molten pig iron) by adding substances containing iron oxide, and sometimes manganese oxide.
6. To use washes, as for the face or hair.
7. Gravel and other rock débris transported and deposited by running water; coarse alluvium.
   
   
   (b)
8. To cover with water or any liquid; to wet; to fall on and moisten; hence, to overflow or dash against; as, waves wash the shore.
   
   

   Fresh-blown roses washed with dew. Milton.

   [The landscape] washed with a cold, gray mist. Longfellow.

9. To clean anything by rubbing or dipping it in water; to perform the business of cleansing clothes, ore, etc., in water.
   
   
   "She can wash and scour." Shak.
10. A piece of ground washed by the action of a sea or river, or sometimes covered and sometimes left dry; the shallowest part of a river, or arm of the sea; also, a bog; a marsh; a fen; as, the washes in Lincolnshire.
    
    
    "The Wash of Edmonton so gay." Cowper.

    These Lincoln washes have devoured them. Shak.

11. Capable of being washed without injury] washable; as, wash goods.
    
    
    [Colloq.]
12. To pass (a gas or gaseous mixture) through or over a liquid for the purpose of purifying it, esp. by removing soluble constituents.
13. To move with a lapping or swashing sound, or the like; to lap; splash; as, to hear the water washing.
14. The dry bed of an intermittent stream, sometimes at the bottom of a cañon; as, the Amargosa wash, Diamond wash; -- called also dry wash.
    
    
    [Western U. S.]
15. To waste or abrade by the force of water in motion; as, heavy rains wash a road or an embankment.
16. To bear without injury the operation of being washed; as, some calicoes do not wash.
    
    
    [Colloq.]
17. Substances collected and deposited by the action of water; as, the wash of a sewer, of a river, etc.
    
    

    The wash of pastures, fields, commons, and roads, where rain water hath a long time settled. Mortimer.

18. The upper surface of a member or material when given a slope to shed water. Hence, a structure or receptacle shaped so as to receive and carry off water, as a carriage wash in a stable.
19. To remove by washing to take away by, or as by, the action of water; to drag or draw off as by the tide; -- often with away, off, out, etc.; as, to wash dirt from the hands.
    
    

    Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins. Acts xxii. 16.

    The tide will wash you off. Shak.

20. To be wasted or worn away by the action of water, as by a running or overflowing stream, or by the dashing of the sea; -- said of road, a beach, etc.
21. Waste liquid, the refuse of food, the collection from washed dishes, etc., from a kitchen, often used as food for pigs.
    
    
    Shak.
22. To cover with a thin or watery coat of color; to tint lightly and thinly.
23. The fermented wort before the spirit is extracted.
    
    
    (b)
24. To overlay with a thin coat of metal; as, steel washed with silver.
    
    

    To wash gold, etc., to treat earth or gravel, or crushed ore, with water, in order to separate the gold or other metal, or metallic ore, through their superior gravity. -- To wash the hands of. See under Hand.

25. That with which anything is washed, or wetted, smeared, tinted, etc., upon the surface.
    
    
    Specifically: --

    (a)

26. The blade of an oar, or the thin part which enters the water.
    
    
    (b)
27. The flow, swash, or breaking of a body of water, as a wave; also, the sound of it.
28. Ten strikes, or bushels, of oysters.
    
    
    [Prov. Eng.]

    Wash ball, a ball of soap to be used in washing the hands or face. Swift. -- Wash barrel (Fisheries), a barrel nearly full of split mackerel, loosely put in, and afterward filled with salt water in order to soak the blood from the fish before salting. -- Wash bottle. (Chem.) (a) A bottle partially filled with some liquid through which gases are passed for the purpose of purifying them, especially by removing soluble constituents. (b) A washing bottle. See under Washing. -- Wash gilding. See Water gilding. -- Wash leather, split sheepskin dressed with oil, in imitation of chamois, or shammy, and used for dusting, cleaning glass or plate, etc.; also, alumed, or buff, leather for soldiers' belts.