wash
n 1: a thin coat of water-base paint
2: the work of washing or cleansing [syn: {washing}]
3: (western United States) the dry bed of an intermittent
stream (as at the bottom of a canyon) [syn: {dry wash}]
4: the flow of air that is driven backwards by an aircraft
propeller [syn: {slipstream}, {airstream}, {race}, {backwash}]
5: a watercolor made by applying a series of monochrome washes
one over the other [syn: {wash drawing}]
6: garments or white goods that can be cleaned by laundering
[syn: {laundry}, {washables}]
7: (informal) any enterprise in which losses and gains cancel
out
v 1: clean with some chemical process [syn: {rinse}]
2: cleanse (one's body) with soap and water [syn: {lave}]
3: cleanse with a cleaning agent, such as soap, and water;
"Wash the towels, please!" [syn: {launder}]
4: move by or as if by water; "The swollen river washed away
the footbridge"
5: be capable of being washed; "Does this material wash?"
6: move by or as if by water; "The footbridge washed away
during the floods"
7: separate dirt or gravel from (precious minerals)
8: apply a thin coating of paint, metal, etc., to
9: remove by the application of water or other liquid and soap
or some other cleaning agent: "he washed the dirt from his
coat" [syn: {wash-off}, {wash away}]
10: form by erosion: "The river washed a ravine into the
mountainside"
11: make moist; "The dew moistened the meadows" [syn: {moisten},
{dampen}]
12: to cleanse (itself or another animal) by licking, as of a
cat; "The cat washes several times a day"