whitewashing, vbl. n.
(ˈhwaɪtˌwɒʃɪŋ)
[f. whitewash v. + -ing1.]
1. The action or process of coating with whitewash.
| 1663 Gerbier Counsel 80 White-washing and stopping, at three pence a yard. 1732 Phil. Trans. XXXVII. 234 They use Glue made very thin..instead of Size, for White-washing. 1834 Dickens Sk. Boz, Boarding-ho. i, The area and the area steps, and the street-door and the street-door steps..were all as clean..as indefatigable white-washing, and hearth-stoning, and scrubbing and rubbing, could make them. |
b. The production of a white efflorescence (saltpetre rot: see saltpetre 2) on a brick wall.
| 1889 C. T. Davis Bricks, Tiles, etc. (ed. 2) 97 In damp positions..brick walls are often covered with a crystalline substance of a white fleecy appearance, suggestive of hoar⁓frost,..which..absorbs the humidity of the atmosphere..and carries off the paint in large patches, and the process is called by the English workmen ‘saltpetring’, and sometimes in this country it is termed ‘whitewashing’. |
2. fig.: see whitewash v. 2, 2 b.
| 1801 Marvellous Love-Story II. 320 To set at defiance the wholesome restrictions imposed upon society, by countenancing Mrs. Smeddy's white-washing [by marriage after an immoral connexion]. 1823 Blackw. Mag. XIV. 101, I have been white-washed by the Insolvent Court.., let all my sins go with that white-washing. 1855 Kingsley Misc. (1859) I. 7, I think the book an altogether foolish..book,..having but one object, the whitewashing of James. |
3. attrib. (in lit. or fig. sense).
| 1817 W. T. Moncrieff Giovanni in Lond. i. iv, With your tailor debts contract, In the Bench for three months pack'd. Get out by the white-washing act, And be as clean as ever. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech., White-washing-apparatus..for whitening walls and ceilings. 1890 Daily News 28 Feb. 7/2 (Court of Bankruptcy) We allege that no assets have been recovered, and that this is a whitewashing case. |
So ˈwhitewashing ppl. a.
| 1883 Harper's Mag. Nov. 829/2 The reaction..against whitewashing churchwardens and..other Goths and Vandals. |