whitewash
English
Etymology
Pronunciation
- Rhymes: -ɒʃ
Noun
whitewash (plural whitewashes)
- A lime and water mixture for painting walls and fences bright white.
- 1952: For walls plaster gave a smooth white surface; or if it was not sufficiently white, or had become discoloured, it could be brightened up with a coat of whitewash or paint. — L.F. Salzman, Building in England, p. 157.
- (sports) A complete victory or series of victories without suffering any losses; a clean sweep.
- 2010, Andrew Miller, Cricinfo:
- For the first time in a long time, Australia are being threatened with the prospect of a 5-0 whitewash
- 2010, Andrew Miller, Cricinfo:
- (obsolete) Any liquid composition for whitening something, such as a wash for making the skin fair.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Addison to this entry?)
Translations
lime and water mixture
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked
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Verb
whitewash (third-person singular simple present whitewashes, present participle whitewashing, simple past and past participle whitewashed)
- To paint over with a lime and water mixture so as to brighten up a wall or fence.
- The houses looked very bright when they whitewashed the whole neighborhood.
- (idiomatic) To cover over errors or bad actions.
- In his sermon, the minister didn't try to whitewash over the sins of his church.
- (dated, transitive) To repay the financial debts of (another person).
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers to this entry?)
- (baseball, slang, dated, late, 19th century, archaic) To prevent a team from scoring any runs.
- (acting) To choose white film or television actors to portray characters that were Asian, African, or other races.
Translations
paint
cover errors
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.