1. (v. t.) 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.

2. (v. t.) 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.

3. (v. t.) To waste or abrade by the force of water in motion; as, heavy rains wash a road or an embankment.

4. (v. t.) 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.

5. (v. t.) To cover with a thin or watery coat of color; to tint lightly and thinly.

6. (v. t.) To overlay with a thin coat of metal; as, steel washed with silver.

7. (v. i.) To perform the act of ablution.

8. (v. i.) To clean anything by rubbing or dipping it in water; to perform the business of cleansing clothes, ore, etc., in water.

9. (v. i.) To bear without injury the operation of being washed; as, some calicoes do not wash.

10. (v. i.) 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.

11. (n.) The act of washing; an ablution; a cleansing, wetting, or dashing with water; hence, a quantity, as of clothes, washed at once.

12. (n.) 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.

13. (n.) Substances collected and deposited by the action of water; as, the wash of a sewer, of a river, etc.

14. (n.) Waste liquid, the refuse of food, the collection from washed dishes, etc., from a kitchen, often used as food for pigs.

15. (n.) The fermented wort before the spirit is extracted.

16. (n.) A mixture of dunder, molasses, water, and scummings, used in the West Indies for distillation.

17. (n.) That with which anything is washed, or wetted, smeared, tinted, etc., upon the surface.

18. (n.) A liquid cosmetic for the complexion.

19. (n.) A liquid dentifrice.

20. (n.) A liquid preparation for the hair; as, a hair wash.

21. (n.) A medical preparation in a liquid form for external application; a lotion.

22. (n.) A thin coat of color, esp. water color.

23. (n.) A thin coat of metal laid on anything for beauty or preservation.

24. (n.) The blade of an oar, or the thin part which enters the water.

25. (n.) The backward current or disturbed water caused by the action of oars, or of a steamer's screw or paddles, etc.

26. (n.) The flow, swash, or breaking of a body of water, as a wave; also, the sound of it.

27. (n.) Ten strikes, or bushels, of oysters.

28. (a.) Washy; weak.

29. (a.) Capable of being washed without injury; washable; as, wash goods.

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