▪ I. whitewash, n.
(ˈhwaɪtwɒʃ)
[prob. f. the vb.; cf. wash n. 4 d.]
† 1. A cosmetic wash formerly used for imparting a light colour to the skin. Obs.
| 1689 Several Disc. Vanities Modish Women 175 Her Bottles of White washes, or Cosmeticks. 1713 Addison Guardian No. 116 ¶1, I have heard a whole Sermon against a White-wash. 1764 Gray Jemmy Twitcher 2 When sly Jemmy Twitcher had smugg'd up his face, With a lick of court whitewash,..A wooing he went. |
2. A liquid composition of lime and water, or of whiting, size, and water, for whitening walls, ceilings, etc.
| 1697 Vanbrugh Relapse v. iii, A little Glasing, Painting, Whitewash, and Playster, will make it [sc. the house] last thy time. 1751 Johnson Rambler No. 161 ¶4 The Plaisterer having..obliterated, by his White-wash, all the smoky Memorials which former Tenants had left upon the Cieling. 1776 G. Semple Building in Water 81 A Peck of Roach⁓lime was slacked into White-wash. 1853 Mrs. Gaskell Cranford xv, A wholesome smell of plaster and whitewash pervaded the apartment. 1858 Hawthorne Fr. & It. Note-bks. (1872) I. 48 Before the whitewash of Cromwell's time had overlaid their marble pillars. |
| attrib. and Comb. 1814 Austin Papers (1924) I. 240, 1 White Wash Brush. 1848 D. G. Rossetti Let. 20 Jan. (1965) I. 34 All my traps have been moved up into an attic, to make room for ladders, whitewash-pails, and such-like gear. 1881 Century Mag. XXIII. 128/2 With whitewash brush in hand. 1887 J. J. Hissey Holiday on Road 26 Art-ignoring, whitewash-loving churchwardens. |
3. fig. Something that conceals faults or gives a fair appearance: cf. next, 2.
| 1865 W. G. Palgrave Arabia II. 21 Such liberal semblance is merely a surface whitewash. 1883 Fortn. Rev. Feb. 284 Washed white with the whitewash of diplomacy. 1898 ‘H. S. Merriman’ Rodens's Corner xi. 116 You know your uncle's reputation—the past one, I mean, not the whitewash. |
4. An act of ‘whitewashing’, as of a bankrupt; also (colloq., orig. U.S.) a victory at baseball or other game in which the opponents fail to score; also, a victory in a series of games of which the opponents fail to win any.
| 1851 J. Henderson Excurs. N.S. Wales I. 64 When once in a twelvemonth your agent goes smash, And bolts to New Zealand, or gets a whitewash. 1867 N.Y. Clipper 31 Aug. 164/2 The first ‘whitewash’ of the [baseball] game was drawn by the Mutuals. 1874 State Jrnl. (Lincoln, Nebraska) 26 June 4/1 The second match game of croquet took place yesterday morning, and resulted in a second whitewash for the latter named gentleman. 1884 Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 13 Sept., The Bostons Give the Lawrence Team a White⁓wash Bath. 1920 Westm. Gaz. 22 May 2/2 The Report is a fairly comprehensive whitewash of everybody concerned. 1961 Times 4 May 4/6 Miss Truman who yesterday allowed Mrs. Cawthorn but 23 points in what the players of darts would term a ‘whitewash’. 1962 Times 26 May 3/5 England nearly scored a whitewash over France..only the victory of G. Mourgue d'Algue standing between them and a 12–0 lead on the first day. 1977 Evening Gaz. (Middlesbrough) 11 Jan. 14/1 Only one whitewash this week in the Friendly League. 1978 Rugby World Apr. 4/1 Scotland must be bitterly disappointed that they have suffered their first whitewash for ten years. |
† 5. slang. (See quot. 1864.) Cf. whitewasher 3. Obs.
| 1864 Hotten Slang Dict. 270 Whitewash, a glass of sherry as a finale, after drinking port and claret. 1879 Trollope John Caldigate III. x. 142 ‘Take another glass of port, old boy.’ Bagwax did take another glass, finishing the bottle... ‘Take a drop of whitewash to wind up, and then we'll join the ladies.’ |
6. Comb.: whitewash gum, either of two eucalypts with powdery white bark, Eucalyptus apodophylla and E. terminalis, found in northern and central Australia.
| [1926 J. M. Black Flora S. Austral. iii. 420 E[ucalyptus] terminalis... Whitewashed gum; bloodwood.] 1934 Bulletin (Sydney) 2 May 21/2 The whitewash gum..forms a striking feature of the landscape about Alice Springs. 1965 Austral. Encycl. III. 406/2 Whitebark or ‘whitewash gum’..of Arnhem Land has perfectly smooth trunks covered with a white mealy ‘bloom’ that rubs off when touched. |
▪ II. ˈwhitewash, v.
[f. white n. 18 + wash v. 9 b.]
1. a. trans. To plaster over (a wall, etc.) with a white composition; to cover or coat with whitewash. Also absol.
| 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Enxalvegar, to white washe a house. 1707 J. Stevens tr. Quevedo's Com. Wks. (1709) 329 She that White-washes her House, has a Mind to lett it. 1780 Coxe Russ. Discov. 216 The houses are..plaistered and white-washed. 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. xliii, There were workmen..altering, repairing, scrubbing, painting, and white-washing. 1834 L. Ritchie Wand. Seine 104 To whitewash a church is, in our eyes, a profanity. 1877 C. Geikie Christ xxix. I. 485 The other [tomb]..whitewashed, to warn passers by not to defile themselves by too near an approach to the dead. |
b. To apply a cosmetic ‘whitewash’ to.
| 1912 C. N. & A. M. Williamson Guests of Hercules xvii, She whitewashed her face and had strange eyes. |
c. intr. To become coated with a white efflorescence: see whitewashing vbl. n. 1 b.
| 1889 C. T. Davis Bricks, Tiles, etc. (ed. 2) 90 The bricks made from them [sc. clays on the Hudson River] usually ‘whitewash’ or ‘saltpetre’ upon exposure to the weather. |
2. fig. a. trans. To give a fair appearance to; to free, or attempt to free, from blame or taint; to cover up, conceal, or gloss over the faults or blemishes of.
With various shades of meaning; now usually somewhat contemptuous, and implying a false appearance of good.
| 1762 Colman Prose Sev. Occas. (1787) II. 34 Such as are blackened in the North Briton are..white-washed in the Auditor. 1764 Hor. Walpole Mem. Reign Geo. III (1845) II. 35 A poet and an author will go as far in whitewashing a munificent tyrant. 1809 Sir G. Jackson Diaries & Lett. (1873) I. 36 To be entirely exonerated from all blame, or—in the familiar language of the day—to be whitewashed. 1833 Marryat Peter Simple xxxi, A quadroon and white make the mustee or one-eighth black, and the mustee and white the mustafina, or one-sixteenth black. After that, they are whitewashed, and considered as Europeans. a 1845 Barham Ingol. Leg. Ser. iii. House-Warm. x, Snore Hill (which we have since whitewash'd to Snow). 1856 N. Brit. Rev. XXVI. 87 Mr. Froude..makes no attempt..to white⁓wash Henry: all that he does is, to remove as far as he can, the modern layers of ‘black-wash’. 1867 Trollope Chron. Barset I. vii. 51 She would have given a finger to white⁓wash Mr. Crawley in the major's estimation. 1904 Stubbs Lect. Eur. Hist. ii. viii. 229 Charles..had..whitewashed the cruel persecutions of Philip himself. |
b. spec. To clear (a bankrupt or insolvent) by judicial process from liability for his debts. Also with the debts, etc. as obj., and intr. for pass. to go through the bankruptcy court.
| 1762 Boston Evg. Post 2 Aug. (Thornton Amer. Gloss.). 1773 Foote Bankrupt ii. (1776) 37 Pass'd a few necessary notes to get him number and value, white-wash'd him, and sent him home. 1819 Sporting Mag. (N.S.) IV. 30 Two baronets' sons pleading to be white-washed, but remanded for fraud towards their creditors. 1832 Egan's Bk. Sports 99/2 The unthinking dashing sparks whitewash their long accounts for twist, tape, and buckram. 1837 Thackeray Ravenswing i, If I'm dunned, I whitewash. 1881 E. J. Worboise Sissie xxvii, I am by no means sure that your father would not prefer to be made a bankrupt!..he would be ‘whitewashed’, in vulgar parlance. |
3. In Baseball and other games: To beat (the opponents) so that they fail to score. Also loosely, to beat by a large margin. colloq. (orig. U.S.).
| 1867 Chicago Republican 6 July 2/6 The Unions were whitewashed 3 times, and the Forest Citys 5 times. 1884 Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 2 Oct. 4 Buffalo Whitewashes Providence, and Philadelphia Detroit. 1972 Korea Times 19 Nov. 1/5 Husky south Korean girls white-washed Thailand 106–17..in the second game. 1981 R. Lewis Seek for Justice vi. 193 He took the first game [of darts]... He all but whitewashed Freddy in the second. |