English
whitewash
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ˈwaɪtwɒʃ/
Noun

whitewash

  1. A lime and water mixture for painting walls and fences bright white.
  2. (sports) A complete victory or series of victories without suffering any losses; a clean sweep.
  3. (obsolete) Any liquid composition for whitening something, such as a wash for making the skin fair.
  4. (politics) A campaign to paper over unfavorable elements.
    Antonyms: blackwash
Translations Translations Translations Verb

whitewash (whitewashes, present participle whitewashing; past and past participle whitewashed)

  1. 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.
  2. (figurative) To cover over errors or bad actions.
    Antonyms: blackwash
    In his sermon, the minister didn't try to whitewash over the sins of his church.
  3. (dated, transitive) To repay the financial debts of (another person).
    • Q en
  4. (baseball, slang, dated, late, 19th century, archaic) To prevent a team from scoring any runs.
  5. (US, UK, slang) In various games, to defeat (an opponent) so that they fail to score, or to reach a certain point in the game; to skunk.
  6. (pejorative) To make over (a person or character, a group, an event, etc) so that it is or seems more white, for example by applying makeup to a person, or by covering over the participation of people of color in an event and focusing on only white participation.
Translations Translations

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