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Whitewash   /wˈaɪtwˌɑʃ/  /hwˈaɪtwˌɑʃ/   Listen
noun
Whitewash  n.  
1.
Any wash or liquid composition for whitening something, as a wash for making the skin fair.
2.
A composition of line and water, or of whiting size, and water, or the like, used for whitening walls, ceilings, etc.; milk of lime.
3.
A glossing over or cover up (of crimes or misfeasance).



verb
Whitewash  v. t.  (past & past part. whitewashed; pres. part. whitewashing)  
1.
To apply a white liquid composition to; to whiten with whitewash.
2.
To make white; to give a fair external appearance to; to clear from imputations or disgrace; hence, to clear (a bankrupt) from obligation to pay debts.
3.
In various games, to defeat (an opponent) so that he fails to score, or to reach a certain point in the game; to skunk. (Colloq., U. S.)
4.
To gloss over or cover up (crimes or misfeasance).






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Whitewash" Quotes from Famous Books



... most sterling hope of any of his works. I saw in my walks with him how much he enjoyed the salable treasures and humble diversions of the thoroughfare, as his readers have always perceived. Ingenuous simplicity, freedom from self-consciousness and whitewash, frank selfishness on a plane so humble that it can do little harm,—all this is amusing and restful after long hours with transcendental folk. In regard to the tenets of these, my mother writes ...
— Memories of Hawthorne • Rose Hawthorne Lathrop

... Graham of Claverhouse—there are people, we believe, who would whitewash the devil if he were only to present himself with a dashing person and a handsome face! But such historians as Macaulay, McCrie, McKenzie, and others, refuse to whitewash Claverhouse. Even Sir Walter Scott—who was very decidedly in sympathy with the Cavaliers—says ...
— Hunted and Harried • R.M. Ballantyne

... I ain't got any more work to do than I ever had, and I always managed to do that, no matter how you did clean up after me and mix up my papers. I'm like old Nigger Pomeroy. He was doin' a job of whitewashin' one day, and he had an old whitewash brush with most of the hair gone out of it. I says to him, 'Pomeroy, why don't you get you a new brush? you could do twice as much work.' And Pomeroy says, 'That's right, Mr. Bines, but the trouble is I ain't got twice as much work to do.' So don't you folks get out on my account," ...
— The Spenders - A Tale of the Third Generation • Harry Leon Wilson

... Some people say they are hideous; others have said, with me, that the sight is sublime. If one looks merely at the half-nude bodies, made repulsive by a coating of reddish black paint, with dabs of whitewash in several places, at their faces painted with the reddish black stuff, at the strings of white beads around their necks, and the snake whips in their hands, then indeed it is easy to say that they are hideous. But if one looks at their faces, he will see intense earnestness, deep solemnity, profound ...
— The Grand Canyon of Arizona: How to See It, • George Wharton James

... she should at once do something to whitewash her own character in her own esteem. This lord had declared that he himself would call, and she was at first minded to wait till he did so, and then to hand back to him the cheque which she believed that he would bring, and to assure him that under altered ...
— The Landleaguers • Anthony Trollope


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