washes

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of wash.

   He washes the dishes every night after dinner.

   The river washes silt downstream toward the delta.

   Note

   It shares its spelling with the plural noun, so the sentence decides which one you have: in he washes the car it is a verb, and in the washes faded it is a noun. Many uses take an object, as in the tide washes the sand away. Others stand alone, as in the soil washes downstream or a cat washes after eating. The prospector's use survives too: she washes gravel for gold.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of wash.

   The bright color faded after several washes in hot water.

   The painter built up the sky with thin blue washes.

   Note

   A regular plural that takes -es because wash ends in the hissing sh sound, like dish and brush. It belongs to the countable uses: a shirt survives many washes, a painter lays down thin washes of blue, waves arrive as successive washes on the shore. Where wash names a liquid or lotion, the plural usually means kinds of it rather than amounts.

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