washing

Pluralwashings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of wash.

   The crew was washing graffiti off the station wall before sunrise.

   Washing your hands often is one of the easiest ways to stay healthy.

   Note

   The verb form serves two jobs. With be it makes the progressive: she is washing the car, the bank is washing away. As a gerund it acts as a noun but keeps a direct object, as in "washing the car took an hour." Compare the true noun, which needs of: the washing of the car. It carries every sense of wash, including prospectors washing for gold. Its separate origin is traced under the act of washing.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   The act or process of cleaning something with water or another liquid.

   After a thorough washing, the windows let in far more light.

   The label recommends a gentle washing in cold water for this fabric.

   Similarcleaning, scrub, rinse

   Note

   The verbal noun goes back to Middle English waschynge and to an Old English form that survives only inside the compound weasċingweġ. Its -ing was once a different ending from the verb's: the participle descends from Old English -ende, and the two spellings later merged. The noun is countable, so repeated rounds take a plural. The Proceedings of the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow (1855) separates sand from clay "by several washings and decantings."

3. 3
   nounAustraliaBritishNew Zealanduncountable

   Clothing, bed linen, or soft furnishings that have been washed, are being washed, or are waiting to be washed; laundry.

   She pegged the washing out in the back garden to dry.

   He sorted the washing into lights and darks before starting the machine.

   Similarlaundry

   Note

   The household word for laundry is chiefly British, Australian and New Zealand. It is uncountable here, so it never takes "a" and never takes a plural. You do the washing, hang it out, or bring it in. Taking in washing meant doing other people's laundry for pay. Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass (2013) uses the phrase this way, for someone who earned a little extra and needed a goodly woodpile for her washtubs.

   My mother used to do the washing on a Monday.

   She took in washing to earn a little extra.

4. 4
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A thin covering or coat, such as a light layer of paint or metal over a surface.

   Years of handling wore away the washing of gold on the locket.

   The walls received only a pale washing of color, so the plaster shows through.

   Similarcoat, coating, film, layer

   Note

   A coat so thin it seems to have been washed on. The noun usually takes an of-phrase naming the material: a washing of silver, a washing of gold. That construction tells it apart from the cleaning senses, because here the washing is the layer itself rather than anything done with water. The idea echoes the verb's sense of covering something with a liquid.

5. 5
   nouncountable or uncountable

   In finance, a sham trade in which one party buys and sells the same stock simultaneously in order to manipulate the market.

   Investigators traced the sudden spike in volume to washing carried out through two linked accounts.

   The exchange suspended the broker for washing intended to inflate the share price.

   Note

   On the stock exchange, washing means trading with yourself. The same stock is bought and sold at once, so no real change of ownership takes place, yet the market sees volume or a price move. The usual modern name is wash trading. Unlike most senses of the word, this one always implies fraud: to accuse a broker of washing is to allege market manipulation.

6. 6
   nouncountableplural

   The residue that remains after an ore or similar material has been washed.

   Assayers tested the washing for traces of tin the process had missed.

   The mill dumped its washings into a settling pond below the works.

   Similartailings, residue

   Note

   Processing talk usually puts it in the plural, as in "the washings have a higher concentration of metal." The word names what stays behind, so keep it apart from the washing liquid, which carries material away. Washings can be tested, concentrated or dumped, while the liquid drains or settles.

7. 7
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The liquid that is poured over or through an ore in order to wash it.

   The washing drained from the trough into a settling tank.

   Fine particles of ore stayed suspended in the washing for hours.

8. 8
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A site where a precious metal, such as gold, is separated from gravel and lighter material using water.

   The washing at the bend of the creek proved the richest ground in the district.

   Prospectors abandoned the washing when the gravel stopped paying.

   Similarplacer

   Note

   Prospecting ground is usually named for the metal it yields: gold-washings, silver-washings, hyphenated and often plural. The name comes straight from the verb's mining use, separating gold from worthless material by flowing water. The place is called after the work done there. The compound makes clear which sense is meant, since a bare washing could just as well be the act, the liquid or the residue.

9. 9
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The coating of a ceramic piece with an infusible powder, which keeps it from sticking to its supports while the glaze is applied.

   Careful washing of each piece prevented the glaze from bonding it to the kiln furniture.

   Thanks to thorough washing, every piece lifted cleanly from its setter after firing.

   Note

   A potter's precaution against the kiln. The powder is infusible, meaning it will not melt at firing heat, so it sits between the glazed ware and its supports and keeps the two from fusing. The term is the craft's own, and it sounds like the thin-coat meaning, but here the coating is a barrier, not a finish meant to be seen.

Showing meanings only. Show all 9