2. 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.
3. To bear without injury the operation of being washed; as, some
calicoes do not wash. [Colloq.]
4. 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.
Wash, n. 1. The act of washing; an ablution; a cleansing, wetting, or
dashing with water; hence, a quantity, as of clothes, washed at once.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Waste liquid, the refuse of food, the collection from washed dishes,
etc., from a kitchen, often used as food for pigs. Shak.
5. (Distilling) (a) The fermented wort before the spirit is extracted.
(b) A mixture of dunder, molasses, water, and scummings, used in the
West Indies for distillation. B. Edwards.
6. That with which anything is washed, or wetted, smeared, tinted,
etc., upon the surface. Specifically: —
(a) A liquid cosmetic for the complexion.
(b) A liquid dentifrice.
(c) A liquid preparation for the hair; as, a hair wash.
(d) A medical preparation in a liquid form for external application; a
lotion.
(e) (Painting) A thin coat of color, esp. water color.
(j) A thin coat of metal laid on anything for beauty or preservation.
7. (Naut.) (a) The blade of an oar, or the thin part which enters the
water. (b) The backward current or disturbed water caused by the action
of oars, or of a steamer's screw or paddles, etc.
8. The flow, swash, or breaking of a body of water, as a wave; also,
the sound of it.