[f. as prec. + -ED1.] One who or that which whitewashes.
1. One who lays on a coat of whitewash.
In quot. 1752 contemptuously for a clumsy artist.
1752. Foote, Taste, I. Thou Dauber, thou execrable Whitewasher.
1866. Mrs. Gaskell, Wives & Dau., xxv. The ladders of whitewashers and painters were sadly in the way of the ladies.
2. fig. One who (or something that) frees from blame, conceals faults, or imparts a fair appearance.
1862. M. Napier, Visct. Dundee, II. 228, note. A devoted and skilful white-washer of Scotch fanatics.
1889. Mona Caird, Wing of Azrael, xxxi. Death is … the great whitewasher.
3. slang or colloq. A final glass of white wine taken after dinner.
1881. J. Grant, Cameronians, I. iii. 37. The general … insisted again and again on one more glass of dry sherry, ‘just as a white-washer.’
