Forms: 5 wesche, wesshe, 5–6 was(c)he, 6 wasch, wasshe, wesch, Sc. weische, 7–9 dial. wesh, 7– wash. [f. WASH v. in many unconnected applications. OE. had wæsc (sense 2) and ʓewæsc ‘alluvio’ (sense 6). Cf. OHG. wasga fem. (MHG., early mod.G. wasche), wesga, weska fem. (MHG. wesche, mod.G. wäsche); also MHG., mod.G. wasch masc., mod.G. wäsch neut.]
I. Act of washing.
1. gen. An act or process of washing or cleansing with water. Also fig.
1663. Tuke, Adv. Five Hours, I. 2. The Blemish once received, no Wash is good For stains of Honor, but th’ Offenders blood.
1666. Sancroft, Lex Ignea, 41. A Baptism in Reserve, a Wash for all our Sins.
Mod. This table needs a wash. I am going to give the dog a wash.
b. An act of washing oneself, esp. of washing one’s hands and face.
1825. T. Hook, Sayings, Ser. II. Doubts & F., ii. While sleepy lackeys … are crawling down the second staircase to breakfast, before the wash.
1838. Dickens, Nickleby, vii. Mind you take care, young man, and get first wash.
1852. C. B. Mansfield, Paraguay, etc. (1856), 89. Next morning … after a wash in a neighbouring rivulet, which I always take when practicable, and breakfast, we started again.
1872. J. Hatton, in Gentl. Mag., June, 722. We must have a wash and be cheerful, and eat some breakfast.
1910. Beet, Rise Papacy, iii. 138. The Patriarch of Antioch appeared upon the scene, and … without waiting even for a wash and change of raiment, proceeded to hold a Council of his own—the so-called Conciliabulum.
1912. ‘R. Andom,’ On Tour with Troddles, ix. 62. What we really did want was a wash and a brush up, with a good substantial meal to follow.
2. An act, spell or task of washing clothes or other textile articles; the process of washing undergone by clothes or the like. (To be lost, damaged, etc.) in the wash, in course of being washed. (To be) at the wash, of clothes, etc., sent a way to be washed.
[c. 1050. Glosses on De Consuetudine Monachorum, in Anglia, XIII. 441. Vestimentorum ablutio, reafa wæsc.]
1704. Lond. Gaz., No. 3981/4. Stolen … Wearing Linen from the Wash.
1813. Wellington, in Gurw., Desp. (1838), X. 56. The packet arrived at so late an hour … and our shirts being at the wash as usual, we did not leave Lisbon till the 20th.
a. 1814. Fam. Politics, IV. i. in New Brit. Theatre, II. 230. I was going to pull it [a gown] to pieces for the wash.
1832. Marryat, N. Forster, iii. It returned from the wash.
1838. Dickens, O. Twist, viii. Ah, you’re a-staring at the pocket-handkerchiefs…. We’ve just looked ’em out, ready for the wash. Ibid. (1840), Old C. Shop, xli. This objection, and a great many others, founded on certain articles of dress being at the wash,… were overcome by Kit.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xi. Mrs. Bute, who knew how many days the sirloin of beer lasted at the Hall; how much linen was got ready at the great wash [etc.].
1848. Mrs. Gaskell, Mary Barton, i. Though she may have done a hard day’s wash, there’s not [etc.].
1876. E. Jenkins, Blot Queen’s Head, 26. You mark their linen ‘Empress’s Crown Hotel,’ and our linen ‘Queen’s Inn.’… What if they get mixed in the wash?
b. concr. The quantity of clothes or other textile articles washed (or set apart to be washed) on one occasion.
1789. New Lond. Mag., April, 224/1. The apprehension of [several people] … for stealing a whole wash of wet linen.
1857. Dickens, Dorrit, I. xxii. In this yard a wash of sheets and tablecloths tried … to get itself dried on a line or two.
1889. Mrs. H. L. Cameron, Lost Wife, I. i. 7. The family wash … flutters gracefully in the breeze.
1898. Hamblen, Gen. Manager’s Story, xvii. 268. The native women having a custom which cannot be too strongly deprecated, of taking in the wash before dark.
1914. Mary R. Rinehart, K, iii. (1915), 35. The back yard, where her aunt, Mrs. Rosenfeld, was hanging out the week’s wash of table linen.
¶ c. pl. App. used (after G. wäsche) for: Washable articles of apparel, body-linen.
1827. Carlyle, Germ. Rom., II. 139. She took special heed to pack up her clothes and washes with her own hands.
3. A washing with some liquid for the purpose of producing a particular effect; a liquid preparation used or intended to be used in this manner.
a. A medicinal lotion. (The word suggests the use of liquid in somewhat larger quantity than is implied by lotion.)
Black, yellow wash: various liquid preparations of mercury for application to ulcers or to the skin in eruptive diseases. White wash: dilute liquor of subacetate of lead.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 757. [Try] whether Children may not haue some Wash, or Some thing to make their Teeth Better, and Stronger?
1672. Wycherley, Love in Wood, IV. ii. My eyes are none of the best since I have used the last new wash of mercury-water.
1697. Tryon, Way to Health, xviii. (ed. 3), 409. There are many various things … prescribed by Physicians … as Washes, etc., to preserve the Teeth and Gums.
1732. Fielding, Mock Doctor, iv. The doctor, with a sort of wash, wash’d her tongue ’till he set it agoing.
1808. Med. Jrnl., XIX. 572. I tried a variety of ointments and washes, but without deriving any material benefit from their use.
1828. Lancet, 16 Feb., 717/1. The employment of yellow wash (a solution of oxymuriate of mercury in lime water) was recommended. Ibid., 732/2. The calomel and lime water, known by the name of the black wash.
1849. Pereira, Elem. Mat. Med. (ed. 3), I. 838. Lotio nigra.… Black Wash. Ibid., 839. Lotio flava.… Yellow or Phagedenic Wash.
1850. Reece’s Med. Guide (ed. 17), 557. Milk, so frequently employed by nurses as a wash in these cases, by turning sour on the part, often excites fresh irritation.
1871. Garrod, Mat. Med. (ed. 3), 117. Externally, when freely diluted, liquor potassæ may be employed as a wash in some chronic skin disorders.
b. A liquid cosmetic for the complexion.
Very common in the 17–18th c.; now chiefly Hist.
1639. Massinger, Unnat. Combat, IV. ii. These are perfum’d too, Of the Roman wash.
1649. Lovelace, Lucasta, 146. No Cabinets with curious Washes, Bladders and perfumed Plashes [are here].
1676. Shadwell, Virtuoso, III. 49. All manner of Washes, Almond-water, and Mercury-water for the Complexion.
1693. Dryden, Juvenal, vi. 605. Her Cheeks as smooth as Silk; Are polish’d with a Wash of Asses Milk.
1706. Farquhar, Recruit. Officer, I. ii. I need … no Harts-horn for my Head, nor Wash for my Complexion.
1735. Pope, Ep. Lady, 54. Narcissa’s nature, tolerably mild, To make a wash, would hardly stew a child.
1766. Goldsm., Vicar W., vi. They were making a wash for the face. Washes of all kinds I had a natural antipathy to; for I knew that instead of mending the complexion they spoiled it.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, X. x. (Rtldg.), 364. I know how to make washes and creams for the ladies’ faces.
1852. Thackeray, Esmond, I. vi. The box … contained—not papers regarding the conspiracy—but my lady’s wigs, washes, and rouge-pots.
1860. All Year Round, No. 49. 531. Pure soft water is the truest beauty wash.
fig. a. 1625. Fletcher, Nice Valour, III. iii. There is no handsomenesse, But has a wash of Pride and Luxury.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), I. 224. Th’ artificial Wash of Eloquence Is daub’d in vain upon the clearest Sense.
1689. Collier, Ess. Pride, 56. Conceit, when it is Corrected with a mixture of Gravity, is an admirable Wash, and will make one look as Wise, and as Great as you would wish.
c. A liquid applied to the hair to alter its color, to impart smoothness, or to promote growth. Now chiefly Hist., exc. in hair-wash.
a. 1668. Lassels, Italy (1698), I. 60. They dry their hair in the sun, after they have washed it in a certain wash.
a. 1700. Evelyn, Diary, June 1645. They weare very long crisped haire, of severall strakes and colours, which they make so by a wash.
1859. Habits of Gd. Society, ii. 118. Essences, powders, pastes, washes for the hair, washes for the skin, recal the days of one’s grandmothers.
4. † a. Mural painting in water-color. Obs.–0
1598. Florio, Aquazzo, wash or water colour. Ibid. (1611), Affrésco, a Painters worke called wash or water-colours.
b. Water-color Painting. A broad thin layer of color laid on by a continuous movement of the brush.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Washing, These washes are usually given in equal Teints, or Degrees, throughout; which are afterwards brought down and soften’d over the Lights with fair Water.
1882. Hamerton, Graphic Arts, 84. Line and auxiliary washes are employed together in great variety. Ibid., 86. At Florence there are some drawings by Cambiaso, in pen and wash.
1884. American, VIII. 59. The beauty of the clear, broad wash.
1886. Ruskin, Præterita, I. xii. 396. To produce dark clouds and rain with twelve or twenty successive washes.
c. transf. (Cf. WASH v. 10 b.)
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, I. lxvii. 92. In the middle of the leaues there riseth vp a yellow welt,… shadowed all ouer with a wash of thin blew.
1877. Black, Green Past., xliv. The valley was a plain of rich vegetation—long water-colour washes of yellow, and russet, and olive-green.
1879. Stevenson, Trav. Donkey (1886), 30. The intervening field of hills had fallen together into one broad wash of shadow.
1887. Constance C. Harrison, Bar Harbor Days, xiii. 157. The summer sunshine fell like a wash of gold upon the shores of Mount Desert.
1891. G. E. Shelley, Catal. Birds Brit. Mus., XIX. 456. Abdomen, thighs, and under tail-coverts white, with a very faint pink wash.
d. A thin coat of water-color or distemper spread over a wall or similar surface; a preparation used for this purpose. Cf. WHITEWASH sb.
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 149. The Pillars from top to bottom being overlaid with a Golden Wash.
1826. Sherer, Notes & Refl. Ramble Germany, 127. The white and yellow washes on the walls looked fresh.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. iii. 348. The floors of the dining rooms … were coloured brown with a wash made of soot and small beer.
1859. Jephson, Brittany, viii. 105. The walls and pillars are all covered with a cold grey wash.
1884. J. T. Bent, Macm. Mag., Oct., 426/1. Syra is almost entirely a white town, relieved now and again by a dash of yellow wash.
1885. Harper’s Mag., March, 547/1. Those engravings and photogravures and the little Florentine mirror look well, don’t they, against the Pompeiian red, though ’tis only ‘water wash’?
5. A solution applied to metals for producing a counterfeit appearance of gold or silver.
1697. Collier, Ess. Mor. Subj., II. 98. Imagination … stamps Value and Significancy upon his Face, and tells the People he is to go for so much; who oftentimes, being deceived by the wash, never examin the Metal, but take him upon Content.
1861. Act 24 & 25 Vict., c. 99 § 3. Whosoever shall gild or silver, or shall, with any Wash or Materials capable of producing the Colour or Appearance of Gold or of Silver,… wash, case over, or colour any Coin whatsoever.
II. Washing movement of water.
6. The washing of the waves upon the shore; surging movement of the sea or other water.
Neptune’s salt wash (quot. 1602) a bombastic periphrasis for ‘the sea.’
[c. 1050. Suppl. Ælfric’s Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 179/35. Aquarum alluuio, wætera ʓewæsc. Ibid., 187/8. Alluuium, wæterʓewæsc.]
1579. Gosson, Apol. Sch. Abuse (Arb.), 65. Truth is … harde, and cannot be broke with washe.
1602. Shaks., Ham., III. ii. 166. Full thirtie times hath Phœbus Cart gon round Neptunes salt Wash, and Tellus Orbed ground.
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 57. At the Entry into the Harbour only a Rock withstands the Washes.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 327. Their carpenters … raised their sides as well as they could to keep off the wash of the sea.
1733. W. Ellis, Chiltern & Vale Farm., 59. The wash and bash of Rains, and the violence of the Winter Winds, which are all fatal to this Ground.
1778. Engl. Gazetteer (ed. 2), s.v. Watchet, Great quantities of alabaster, which fall down the cliffs here, by the wash of the sea, are also sent to that city.
1855. Tennyson, Brook, 194. Katie walks By the long wash of Australasian seas Far off.
1865. Gosse, Land & Sea (1874), 5. Here we were … facing the westerly breeze, and pitching and rolling in the wash of the sea.
1872. Dana, Corals, ii. 137. An important protection to the roof against the wash of the waters.
1894. Hall Caine, Manxman, IV. xviii. The wash of the waves touched his feet.
transf. 1855. Browning, Two in Campagna, v.
| Silence and passion, joy and peace, | |
| An everlasting wash of air— | |
| Rome’s ghost since her decease. |
b. A surge raised in the sea or other piece of water by the passage of a vessel.
1883. G. H. Boughton, in Harper’s Mag., Feb., 393/1. We were steaming along splendidly now, sending up a fine wash and swash along the banks. Ibid. (1884), J. Hatton, Feb., 344/2. The steam-launch … sends a ‘wash’ along the shore.
1890. R. C. Lehmann, Harry Fludyer, 121. They were standing on the bank close to the water, and our boat raised a wash and wetted their feet.
c. The sound of the surge of water.
1845. J. Coulter, Adv. Pacific, ix. 109. I … listened to the wash of the briny element on the beach.
1871. Longf., Life (1891), III. 177. The low wash of the sea very soothing.
1873. Black, Pr. Thule, iii. 39. The wash of ripples along the coast could be heard.
1918. J. Storer Clouston, in Blackw. Mag., June, 717/2. The wash of the swell on rocks met my ear.
d. Wear or attrition due to the action of waves.
1791. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 78. To prevent that wash of the joints, that a very exposed situation might subject it to.
1872. Lowell, Dante, Writ. 1890, IV. 224. This three-arched bridge, still firm against the wash and wear of ages.
7. A sandbank or tract of land alternately covered and exposed by the sea; a portion of an estuary admitting of being forded or crossed on foot at low tide. † The Washes, applied spec. to the fordable portion of the estuary between Lincolnshire and Norfolk; hence used as a name for the estuary itself, now called The Wash.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 517/2. Wasche, watur or forde (v.r. forth), vadum.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Edw. VI., 208 b. King Edward … with all hast possible passed the wasshes … & came to the toune of Lynne.
1595. Shaks., John, V. vi. 41. Halfe my power this night … are taken by the Tide, These Lincolne-Washes haue deuoured them.
1601. Holland, Pliny, III. xxvi. I. 71. As for the coast of Illyricum, it is pestred with more than a thousand [islands]; such is the nature of the sea, full of shelves and washes, with narrow chanels running betweene.
1611. Cotgr., s.v. Passade, The swift course of the flowing, and ebbing of the sea, on the Sandes, or Washes.
1617. Moryson, Itin., III. 140. Upon the bay which Ptolomy names, Æstuariam Metaris, vulgarly called, the Washes, lieth the large Towne of Linne.
a. 1631. Donne, Serm., lxiv. (1640), 647. A washing begun in Baptisme,… Not such a washing, as the Washes have, which are those sands that are overflowed with the Sea at every Tide, and then lie dry, but [etc.].
1641. Prynne, Disc. Prel. Tyrr., ii. 93. Hee departed out of Chester … his friends conducted them over the washes which are dangerous.
1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Rich. II., ccliii. Mowbray, who had gone all the way along Vpon these Washes … Now to goe further, thought a Quick-sand sprung Might swallow him.
1681. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen. (1693), 1295. The washes, as in Lincolnshire; Æstuaria.
1722. De Foe, Col. Jack, vii. There was no way now left, but that by the washes into Lincolnshire.
1740. Phil. Trans., XLI. 689. An Easterly Breeze, which the Borderers on the coast of Lincolnshire and Norfolk call Tide-weather, and may be occasioned by the Vapours arising from the Tides, which then cover a vast Wash of Sands in their Neighbourhood.
1851. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XII. II. 289. The great bay or wash, which forms the sole receptacle for the drainage waters, is so shallow.
† b. The portion of the shore washed by the waves. Obs.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, II. iii. § 7. 259. Euen at the very brincke and wash of the Sea. Ibid. (a. 1618), Apol., 15. The Towne being seated upon the very Wash of the Sea.
1698. Phil. Trans., XX. 410. Some Vessels have been cast so far on the Shore, that … they have been from Twenty to Thirty Yards dry from the Wash of the Shore.
c. A low-lying tract of ground, often flooded, and interspersed with shallow pools and marshes.
1483. Cath. Angl., 414/2. A Wesche, tesquum, in plurali tesqua.
1601. Holland, Pliny, III. i. I. 52. Within the washes and downes of Bœtis there is the town Nebrissa.
1794. Vancouver, Agric. Cambridge, 174. The crops on the interior commons and washes suffered extremely by these [wire worms, etc.] at first.
1866. Kingsley, Herew., xxviii. Beyond Earth where now run the great washes of the Bedford Level.
1905. Athenæum, 30 Dec., 902/1. The book records … the enclosure of commons and washes, and the continuous advance of building operations.
d. Western U.S. The dry bed or portion of the bed of a winter torrent.
1894. E. B. Howell, in Amer. Rev. Reviews, Nov., 508/2. The center of it [Pachango Valley] is occupied with the broad sandy ‘wash’ characteristic of Southern California streams.
1897. Outing, XXIX. 582/1. Temescal Wash is a mile wide and composed of sand and prickly pear cactus.
1904. R. B. Townshend, in 19th Cent., March, 431. We found the bed of the wash, or dry valley bed, up which we were driving, was planted with corn unlike any corn I had ever seen before.
8. A tract of shallow water, a lagoon. Also, a shallow pool or runnel formed by the overflow of a river, a backwater; a stream running across a road.
1530. Palsgr., 287/1. Wasshe of water, marre.
1545–6. Leland, Itin. (1745), I. New Yr.’s Gift, p. xxli. There is almoste nother Cape, nor Bay, Haven, Creeke, or Peere, River or Confluence of Rivers, Breches, Waschis, Lakes, Meres, Fenny Waters, Montaynes, Valleis, Mores, [etc.].
1592. Greene, Def. Conny-catching, Wks. (Grosart), XI. 65. Jack … away he rides singing towardes Endfield [from Edmonton]: as he rode, he mette at the washes with the Miller.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XXXI. iv. II. 410. The raine that fell caused all the washes arising from the river Nilus which watered the grounds, to be bitter. Ibid. (1609), Amm. Marcell., 248. Conveying themselves over the washes and marishes in flotes and troughes of hollowed trees.
1610. Folkingham, Feudigr., I. ii. 3. The other sort is digged vp in Fountaines, Riuers, Washes, Salt-Meeres, Sea-shoares.
1656. Earl Monm., trans. Boccalini’s Advts. fr. Parnass., I. xxxix. 52. The glorious Venetian Liberty … was planted in those Washes. Ibid. (1658), trans. Paruta’s Wars Cyprus, 109. The Washes, or Moorish grounds, whereon the City of Venice is placed.
1673. Pleas. Treat. Witches, 52–3. With whom he travelled, till at last they came to a great wash; where the man profered the Monk, being a Religious person, and of lesser stature, to carry him over on his back.
1695. Thoresby, Diary (1830), I. 295. We … had some showers, which raised the washes upon the road to that height that passengers from London that were upon the road swam.
1782. Cowper, Gilpin, 135. Till he came unto the Wash Of Edmonton so gay.
1847. L. Hunt, Men, Women, & Bks., I. iii. 41. The gutters were suddenly a torrent; the pavement a dancing wash.
1848. H. W. Herbert, Field Sports U.S., II. 28. The wide extent of salt marshes and meadows, interspersed with shallow land-locked washes and lagoons.
1857. Hawthorne, Eng. Note-bks. (1870), II. 204. Along the base of the castle [Skipton] … flows a stream, but only a ‘wash,’ whatever that may be.
1878. S. H. Miller & Skertchly, Fenland, vi. 158. Banks were made … enclosing a space called a Wash ‘for the waters to bed in’ in time of flood.
1884. F. Stephens, in Auk, Oct., 356. I came to a wash a few feet wide and a foot or so deep.
III. 9. Waste water discharged after use in washing; liquid refuse. Also fig. Now rare.
c. 1440. Pallad. on Husb., I. 1105. And all the wesshe out of thi bathis [L. balnearum … eluvies] The gardyn thorgh to go, therto no scathe is.
1797. Burke, Reg. Peace, III. (1892), 192. If his Majesty had kept aloof from that wash and off-scouring of every thing that is low and barbarous in the world.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Brooke Farm, iii. 39. He advised … that the sweepings from the cottage floors,… and the wash and boilings of all sorts, should be thrown into it [the pit].
10. Sc. and north. Stale urine: used as a detergent and as a mordant.
Perhaps so called from its use in washing.
c. 1480. Henryson, Sum Practysis of Med., 48. This vntment is rycht ganand for ȝour awin vss, With reid nettill seid in strang wesche to steip.
1535. Lyndesay, Satyre, 4146. Ane curtill queine … Of strang wesche scho will tak ane iurdane, And settis in the gyle-fat. Ibid. (1546), Death Beaton, etc., E ij. Thou false hereticke [Wishart], saydest that holy water is not so good as washe, & such lyke.
1703. Thoresby, Lett. to Ray, Wesh, or wash, Urine.
1737. Ramsay, Sc. Prov. (1750), 65. Learn your goodame to kirn wash.
1743. in R. Maxwell, Sel. Trans. Agric., 368. Put into your Copper a little stale Wash, which will make your Wald spend, and raise your Colour.
1882. Crookes, Dyeing, 19. Stale urine … known in Lancashire as ‘lant,’ and in Yorkshire as ‘wash’ or ‘weeting,’ owes its action to the carbonate of ammonia formed by the decomposition of urea.
11. Kitchen swill or brewery refuse as food for swine: HOGWASH, PIG’S WASH. (So G. dial. wäsch.)
1585. Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 51/1. Porcus colluuiaris,… an hogge fed with wash and draffe.
1592. Breton, Pilgr. Parad. (Grosart), 22/2. The sweetest wine, is but as swinish wash, Unto the water, of the well of life.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., V. ii. 9. The wretched, bloody, and vsurping Boare,… Swilles your warm blood like wash, and makes his trough In your embowel’d bosomes.
1665. South, Serm. (Prov. iii. 17), 18. As different as the silence of an Archimedes in the study of a Problem, and the stillness of a Sow at her wash.
1732. Acc. Workhouses, 79. They have a pig or two brought in, to live upon their wash, and dregs.
1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, II. 132/1. The hogs’ food obtained by these street-folk, or, as I most frequently heard it called, the ‘wash.’
1869. Blackmore, Lorna D., xxxii. She … pointed to the great bock of wash, and riddlings, and brown hulkage.
1896. Baring-Gould, Dartmoor Idylls, v. 129. When she carried the sow her pail of wash.
fig. 1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., I. 16. Clean Stomacks will be better satisfied with one drop of the Milk of Truth, then foul Feeders … with a Trough of Wash, mingled with the water of Fabulous Inventions.
b. Liquid food for other animals.
1847. W. C. L. Martin, The Ox, 96/2. The mangers extend along the whole length of each row of cattle; these are for the wash, or fluid food;… The wash … is very nutritious, as it contains the finer particles of the ground malt.
IV. 12. Matter washed away by running water; solid particles carried away by a stream and deposited as sediment; alluvial deposit.
1707. Mortimer, Husb., 86. The Wash of Pastures, Fields, Commons, Roads [etc.] … where … Rain water hath a long time settled…, [is] of very great advantage to all sorts of Land.
1757. [Burke], Europ. Settlem. Amer., VI. i. II. 60. In these plains, the soil augmented by the wash of the mountains for so many ages, is prodigiously fertile.
1860. Motley, Netherl. (1868), I. i. 8. A territory, the mere wash of three great rivers.
1855. Dickens, Mut. Fr., I. xiii. ‘Tastes like the wash of the river.’ ‘Are you so familiar with the flavour of the wash of the river?’
1883. H. W. Crosskey, in Modern Rev., IV. 682. It [the land] has been built up out of the wash of ancient rivers and the sands of vanished seas.
1888. J. D. Whitney, Names & Places, 125 (Cent.). The debris-piles which stretch along the lower slopes of the ranges in the Cordilleran Region are locally known as washes.
1895. Baring-Gould, Noémi, x. The course taken by the flood is easily recognisable by this fact—that it has left its wash on the tops of the plateau, where to the present day lies a film of caoline.
b. Mining. ‘A formation of gravel, etc. over an abraded coal-seam.’ (Eng. Dial. Dict.)
1888. W. E. Nicholson, Gloss. Coal Trade Northumb. (E.D.D.), The Team Wash, which extends from Dunston on the river Tyne and, following the line of the river Team, to Tursdale,… and washes out several seams of coal in its course.
V. 13. a. (See quot. 1728.) ? Obs.
1619. Donne, Serm., 18 April (1661), III. 270. Of this Gold (this virtue of Repentance) there is no Mine in the Earth; in the books of Philosophers, no doctrine of Repentance; this Gold is for the most part in the washes.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., Washings, or Washes, among Goldsmiths, Coiners, &c. are the Lotions whereby they recover the Particles of Gold and Silver out of the Ashes, Earths, Sweepings, &c.
b. Soil from which gold (or diamonds) can be extracted by washing.
a. 1875. Hector, in Offic. Handbk. N. Zealand, 171. Gold was obtained on terraces along the sides of the valley, and in the river bed, the wash everywhere resting on water-worn bars and ledges of greenstone, [etc.].
1879. Atcherley, Trip Boërland, 143. We had extracted about a hundredweight of wash.
1880. Fison & Howitt, Kamilaroi, 272. It may be that the great ‘reef washes’ of Ballarat are to be referred to the period of depression during which the abovementioned marine beds were laid down.
1886. N. Z. Herald, 28 May, 6/7. Last week, after driving about 80 feet, they struck payable wash. The wash is about two feet thick, lying on a slate bottom.
1890. Goldfields of Victoria, 7. A company has been formed to work the ‘first floor’ which shows gold and tin in 10 feet of wash.
1897. Daily News, 30 Nov., 9/5. Inverell Diamond Fields.—… 101 carats of diamonds from five loads washed. Wash improves as development progresses.
VI. Watery infusion or mixture.
14. Originally, the partially fermented wort remaining after ale or beer has been brewed from it; this wort as subjected to further fermentation in order that ardent spirit may be distilled from it. In later use, malt or other fermentable substance or mixture of substances steeped in water to undergo fermentation preparatory to distillation.
a. 1700. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Wash, After-wort.
1701. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), V. 55. That 2d. per gallon be laid on all low wines or spirits drawn from brewers wash.
1709. Lond. Gaz., No. 4624/1. An Act to Prohibit the Exportation of … Worts and Wash drawn from Malted Corn.
1753. Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl., Wash, the distillers name for the fermentable liquor, made by dissolving the proper subject for fermentation and distillation in common water.
1815. Ann. Reg., Chron., 43. Besides the still, a considerable quantity of wash, and some low wines, were found.
1825. Gentl. Mag., XCV. I. 215. The molasses are conveyed by channels into a large vat in the still house, to which a certain quantity of water is added, and in this state the liquor is called ‘wash.’
1880. Act 43 & 44 Vict., c. 24 § 5 (1) No person may, without being licensed ..,. (b) Brew or make wort or wash.
1903. Times, 22 Aug., 8/6. There were barrels containing at least 200 gallons of ‘wash’—liquor prepared with sugar, barley, flour, &c.
1908. Westm. Gaz., 23 March, 3/1. The liquid from which spirit is distilled is termed ‘wash,’ and may be made from almost anything. If the distiller be righteous, it is made from malt, or, in the case of Irish whisky, malt and unmalted grain.
15. Washy or vapid liquor. Also fig., vapid discourse or writing.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. Luke iii. 15–18. My doctrine is but verai washe, if it be compared vnto his doctrine [Erasm. Mea doctrina diluta est, si ad illius doctrinam conferatur].
1819. W. S. Rose, Lett. N. Italy, I. 108. A remedy … is thought to have been discovered in coffee; not the vile and vapid wash which is usually made in England,… but [etc.].
1839. Rayson, Poems (1858), 49. Nae mair weaste yer money on ony see wesh.
1895. J. Nicholson, Kilwuddie, 166 (E.D.D.). We kentna the goo’ o’ the wash we drink noo, That puir, feckless skiddle ca’d tea.
1911. R. Brooke, Lett., in Memoir (1918), p. lxx. To remove it [the sonnet called Lust] would be to overbalance the book still more in the direction of unimportant prettiness. There’s plenty of that sort of wash in the other pages for the readers who like it.
VII. 16. The blade of an oar.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1780), D d 4. That part of the oar … which enters into the water, is called the blade, or wash.
VIII. Senses of obscure or doubtful origin.
17. A measure for oysters and whelks.
1481–90. Howard Househ. Bks. (Roxb.), 370. Item, for ij. wash and di. of oystres at Wevenho, iiij. d.
1574. in Rep. MSS. Ld. Middleton (1911), 444. To Walter Tayler for viij washe of oysters and for charges from Dunesbye, vj s. viij d.
1661. Blount, Glossogr. (ed. 2), A Wash of Oysters is ten Strikes.
1677. Maldon (Essex) Borough Deeds, Bundle 101. no. 2, Paid for a wash of oysters presented to a gent. in London vpon the town’s account.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 163. The trade in whelks is one of which the costermongers have the undisputed monopoly … this shell-fish is bought by the measure (a double peck or gallon), half measure, or wash. A wash is four measures.
1879. Encycl. Brit., IX. 256/2. Each smack takes about 40 wash of whelks with her for the voyage.
1882. Standard, 26 Sept., 2/2. Whelks are sold by the ‘wash,’ a wash consisting of 21 quarts and one pint,… worth on an average four shillings.
† 18. Some part of a horse’s eye. Obs.
1639. T. de Grey, Compl. Horsem., II. viii. (1656), 293. I have oft times seen the French Marishalls take up the wash of the eye, with a Spanish needle, threeded with a double brown threed,… But I cannot commend this manner of curing the Haw, for by that means he cutteth away the wash of the eye, which indeed is the beauty of the eye.
1737. Bracken, Farriery Impr. (1756), I. 141. Farriers taking up the Wash of the Eye with a Needle and Thread.
19. The underground den of a beaver or a bear.
1809. A. Henry, Trav., 128. It [the beaver’s house] is always entirely surrounded with water; but, in the banks adjacent, the animal provides holes or washes, of which the entrance is below the surface, and to which it retreats on the first alarm.
1877. Coues, Fur-Bearing Anim., ii. 52. They [wolverenes] bring forth in burrows under ground, probably old Bear washes, and have four or five young at a birth.
20. slang. a. Printers’. An act of ‘washing’ (see WASH v. 19 a).
1841. Savage, Dict. Printing, 810.
b. Stock Exchange. A fictitious sale of securities by a broker who has a commission from an intending buyer and also from an intending seller, and who instead of effecting the two transactions separately, in the interest of each client, simply transfers from the one account to the other, the difference going to his own profit.
1891. in Century Dict.
IX. 21. attrib. and Comb., in sense 14, designating various vessels in which the distiller’s ‘wash’ is contained or elaborated, as wash-back, -batch, -charger, -cistern, -heater, -warmer; in sense 11, as wash-buyer. Also wash-basket (a) U.S. see quot. 1881; (b) a basket for clothes sent to the wash; wash-bill U.S. = washing-bill; wash-day, the day for the washing of clothes in a household = washing-day; wash-land, a tract of land periodically overflowed by a river; wash-linen, linen sent to the wash; wash-plain, a tract of land formed by alluvial deposits; wash-sale, see quot. 1891 (cf. sense 20); † wash-tumbler, ? a glass for holding washes for the complexion or the teeth; † wash-yard, ? the yard attached to a wash-house.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 403. Before the fermented wort goes into the still, a calculation is made of the quantity of wash drawn from the *wash back, and which is first pumped into what is called the *wash charger.
1881. E. Ingersoll, Oyster-Industry, 249. *Wash-basket.—A rude splint basket, circular, shallow, holding about a peck, and with a high bale-handle (Rhode Island).
1903. Daily Chron., 26 June, 3/7. The family wash-basket.
1696–7. Act 8 & 9 Will. III., c. 19 § 10. That no common Distiller … shall … erect or sett upp any Tun Cask *Wash-batch Copper Still or other Vessell for the brewing making or keeping of any Worts Wash [etc.].
1873. B. Harte, Fiddletown, 26–7. Finding his *wash-bill made out on the unwritten side of one of these squares, and delivered to him with his weekly clean clothes.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, II. 149. There are a number of *wash-buyers in the suburbs, who purchase … their stock … at gentlemen’s houses, and retail it … to those who feed pigs.
1839. *Wash charger [see wash back].
1853. Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 5. The *wash-cistern … should be supported on a shelf near the ceiling of the stove-heated apartment.
1864. Mrs. A. Gatty, Parables Nat., Ser. IV. 9. He had watered it … with soap-suds on a *wash-day.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 1182. The water … is carried off by the pipe m, through the vessel n, called the *wash-heater.
1794. Vancouver, Agric. Cambridge, 191. The *washlands amount to about three thousand acres.
1878. S. H. Miller & Skertchly, Fenland, i. 6. Along this course … are wash-lands which receive the waters of the river when it overflows.
1883. Eng. Illustr. Mag., Nov., 70/2. In some cases the rivers have even inner and outer banks, with washlands between them.
1901. Osler, Princ. Med., I. (ed. 4), 5. The infection [of typhoid fever] may be spread by means of clothing and *wash-linen.
1899. Nature, 13 July, 259/1. These *‘wash plains’ or stream deltas and fans constitute a very important feature in the Pleistocene deposits of the region.
1891. Century Dict., *Wash sales, in the stock-market, feigned sales, made for the sake of advantage gained by the report of a fictitious price.
1908. Times, 26 Aug., 5/5. In the words of the Evening Post … since 1901 the two terms ‘wash sales’ and ‘matched orders’ have become a familiar explanation of the erratic movements of prices on the Exchange.
1774. Pennsylv. Gaz., 14 Dec., 1/1. Glass. Cut candlesticks, decanters, *wash tumblers, wine glasses, [etc.].
1900. Sadtler, Handbk. Industr. Org. Chem. (ed. 3), 220. Interposing between the still and the refrigerating apparatus a *‘wash-warmer,’ or vessel filled with the liquid ready for distillation.
c. 1625. in W. Robinson, Hackney (1842), I. 111. [Inventory of Goods] In the Wash-house … In the *Wash-yarde. Item—One great cesterne of leade, [etc.].
