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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Wash \Wash\ (w[o^]sh), verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Washed}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Washing}.] [OE. waschen, AS. wascan; akin to D. wasschen, G. waschen, OHG. wascan, Icel. & Sw. vaska, Dan. vaske, and perhaps to E. water. [root]150.]
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 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.
3. To waste or abrade by the force of water in motion; as, heavy rains wash a road or an embankment.
4. 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.
5. To cover with a thin or watery coat of color; to tint lightly and thinly.
6. To overlay with a thin coat of metal; as, steel washed with silver.
7. To cause dephosphorisation of (molten pig iron) by adding substances containing iron oxide, and sometimes manganese oxide. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
8. To pass (a gas or gaseous mixture) through or over a liquid for the purpose of purifying it, esp. by removing soluble constituents. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
{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 higher density.
{To wash the hands of}. See under {Hand}.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Wash \Wash\, noun
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 applied in a liquid form on any object, for beauty or preservation; -- called also {washing}. [1913 Webster +PJC]
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.
9. Ten strikes, or bushels, of oysters. [Prov. Eng.]
10. [Western U. S.] (Geol.) (a) Gravel and other rock d['e]bris transported and deposited by running water; coarse alluvium. (b) An alluvial cone formed by a stream at the base of a mountain. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
11. The dry bed of an intermittent stream, sometimes at the bottom of a ca[~n]on; as, the Amargosa wash, Diamond wash; -- called also {dry wash}. [Western U. S.] [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
12. (Arch.) 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. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
13. an action or situation in which the gains and losses are equal, or closely compensate each other. [PJC]
14. (Aeronautics) the disturbance of the air left behind in the wake of a moving airplane or one of its parts. [PJC]
{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.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Washing \Wash"ing\, noun
1. The act of one who washes; the act of cleansing with water; ablution.
2. The clothes washed, esp. at one time; a wash.
3. (Mining) Gold dust procured by washing; also, a place where this is done; a washery. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
4. A thin covering or coat; as, a washing of silver. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
5. (Stock Exchanges) The operation of simultaneously buying and selling the same stock for the purpose of manipulating the market. The transaction is fictitious, and is prohibited by stock-exchange rules. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
6. (Pottery) The covering of a piece with an infusible powder, which prevents it from sticking to its supports, while receiving the glaze. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
{Washing bear} (Zo["o]l.), the raccoon.
{Washing bottle} (Chem.), a bottle fitted with glass tubes passing through the cork, so that on blowing into one of the tubes a stream of water issuing from the other may be directed upon anything to be washed or rinsed, as a precipitate upon a filter, etc.
{Washing fluid}, a liquid used as a cleanser, and consisting usually of alkaline salts resembling soaps in their action.
{Washing machine}, a machine for washing; specifically, a machine for washing clothes.
{Washing soda}. (Chem.) See {Sodium carbonate}, under {Sodium}.
{Washing stuff}, any earthy deposit containing gold enough to pay for washing it; -- so called among gold miners.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
washing
noun
1: the work of cleansing (usually with soap and water) [syn: {wash}, {lavation}]
2: garments or white goods that can be cleaned by laundering [syn: {laundry}, {wash}, {washables}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
53 Moby Thesaurus words for "washing": ablution, bear raid, bull raid, cleaning out, corner, corner in, douche, douching, elution, elutriation, enema, flush, flushing, flushing out, irrigation, lap, lapping, lathering, laundering, laundry, lavabo, lavage, lavation, laving, manipulation, monopoly, mopping, mopping up, plash, raid, rigging, rinse, rinsing, scouring, scrub, scrubbing, scrubbing up, shampoo, slosh, soaping, splash, sponge, sponging, swabbing, swash, tubbing, wash, wash sale, washday, washing up, washout, washup, wiping up
From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:
Washing (Mark 7:1-9). The Jews, like other Orientals, used their fingers when taking food, and therefore washed their hands before doing so, for the sake of cleanliness. Here the reference is to the ablutions prescribed by tradition, according to which "the disciples ought to have gone down to the side of the lake, washed their hands thoroughly, 'rubbing the fist of one hand in the hollow of the other, then placed the ten finger-tips together, holding the hands up, so that any surplus water might flow down to the elbow, and thence to the ground.'" To neglect to do this had come to be regarded as a great sin, a sin equal to the breach of any of the ten commandments. Moses had commanded washings oft, but always for some definite cause; but the Jews multiplied the legal observance till they formed a large body of precepts. To such precepts about ceremonial washing Mark here refers. (See {ABLUTION}.)
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