[f. WASH v. Cf. G. waschleder (perh. from Eng.)
According to some writers the material is so called ‘from the fact that it may be easily washed’ (Encycl. Brit., ed. 9 XIV. 390). But the obsolete synonyms washen, washed leather suggest that the original reference may have been to the ‘washing’ which is an important part of the process of manufacture.]
A soft kind of leather, usually of split sheepskin, dressed to imitate chamois leather.
1681. Chetham, Angler’s Vade-m., iv. § 13 (1689), 43. Making the body of yellow wash-leather.
1774. Phil. Trans., LXIV. 349. Two or three circles of wash-leather dipt in oil.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, xxxviii. Miss Tox … polished him up with a piece of wash-leather.
1857. Reade, Course of True Love, 8. All one colour, like wash-leather, or an actor by daylight.
b. attrib. (quasi-adj.) Made of wash-leather. Also Path. of eruptions: Resembling wash-leather in appearance.
c. 1662. in Verney Mem. (1907), II. 262. [For the cold in winter he wants] wash-leather gloves to write in.
a. 1672. Wood, Life (O.H.S.), II. 51. A paire of wash leather gloves.
1772. Foote, Nabob, II. (1778), 37. Tom Ramskin … had a fifty-pound note for a pair of wash-leather breeches.
1836. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Parish, vii. He wore … wash-leather gloves.
1854. Surtees, Handley Cr., xli. (1901), II. 36. Wellington boots with wash-leather kneecaps.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 245. In frosty weather the wearing of wash-leather socks both by night and day is an advantage.
1900. J. Hutchinson, Archives Surg., XI. 4. Large patches of xanthelasma palpebrarum of the ordinary wash-leather type.
1907. J. A. Hodges, Elem. Photogr. (ed. 6), 25. The lens being placed in a wash-leather bag.
