bathed

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of bathe.

   After the long hike, they bathed in the cool river.

   The nurse bathed the patient's wounds carefully.

   Note

   One spelling does double duty here. It is the simple past (they bathed in the river) and the participle after have or be (the wound was bathed). Its range follows bathe itself, from washing and swimming to sunbathing and the figurative sense of covering, as in a field bathed in light. The same letters also spell the past of the Commonwealth verb bath, so context decides which verb is meant.

2. 2
   adjective

   Clean and refreshed as a result of having washed in a bath.

   The newly bathed dog shook water across the kitchen floor.

   Bathed and changed, the children settled down for a bedtime story.

   Similarwashed, clean, scrubbed

   Oppositeunwashed, dirty

   Note

   A participle that has settled into an adjective, describing the state a bath leaves behind rather than the act itself. It often takes an adverb of time in front, as in newly bathed or freshly bathed. It compares with more and most rather than -er and -est. Keep it apart from the figurative use of the past of bathe: a face bathed in sunlight is lit, not clean.

3. 3
   USBATHT/bæθt/UKUKBAHTHT/bɑːθt/US

   verbCommonwealth

   Simple past and past participle of bath.

   The nanny bathed the children before their parents returned home.

   He bathed the toddler quickly while dinner cooked.

   Note

   A Commonwealth verb hides behind this spelling. In that usage one baths the baby, and the baby was bathed before supper. Washing a person or animal in a tub is its core, transitive use; the intransitive "have a bath" is informal. Because the past of bathe looks identical, only the present tense shows which verb is in play: she baths the toddler, or she bathes him.

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