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Washing   /wˈɑʃɪŋ/   Listen
Washing

noun
1.
The work of cleansing (usually with soap and water).  Synonyms: lavation, wash.
2.
Garments or white goods that can be cleaned by laundering.  Synonyms: laundry, wash, washables.



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"Washing" Quotes from Famous Books



... this at school, and various were the greetings poor Fred received at recess. "Well, you're a brave one to stay at home washing dishes." "Girl boy!" "Pretty Bessie!" "Lost your apron, ...
— McGuffey's Fourth Eclectic Reader • William Holmes McGuffey

... river are many who, indifferent to the arrival of the mail, are engaged in washing their clothes or utensils, while boys and girls gambol on the banks, or, swimming with delightful ease, frolic round the ...
— Burma - Peeps at Many Lands • R.Talbot Kelly

... anything heavy—no other sound; no cry, no word—a moment's pause in the running of the waves, then they went on again as gayly as ever, washing the wooden pillars, and wreathing them with fresh seaweed. The tall figure, with the head bent over the rail, might have been a statue for all the life or stir ...
— The Tragedy of the Chain Pier - Everyday Life Library No. 3 • Charlotte M. Braeme

... know, was in the army, And he drew six dollars a month as a pension, And stood on the corner talking politics, Or sat at home reading Grant's Memoirs; And I supported the family by washing, Learning the secrets of all the people From their curtains, counterpanes, shirts and skirts. For things that are new grow old at length, They're replaced with better or none at all: People are prospering or falling back. And rents and patches widen with time; No thread or ...
— Spoon River Anthology • Edgar Lee Masters

... ourselves, Tim—that is to say, as far as cleaning the rifles, washing our linen, and cooking the dinner. As for the other things, I don't suppose we shall ever have our boots cleaned; we have no white belts to pipeclay, for they are made of buff leather; and we shall not have to pitch tents, for we don't take them with us, but ...
— The Young Franc Tireurs - And Their Adventures in the Franco-Prussian War • G. A. Henty

... inexhaustible fund of good-humour, Madame Beauharnois was formed to be an ornament to society. Barras, the Thermidorien hero, himself an ex-noble, was fond of society, desirous of enjoying it on an agreeable scale, and of washing away the dregs which Jacobinism had mingled with all the dearest interests of life. He loved show, too, and pleasure, and might now indulge both without the risk of falling under the suspicion of incivism, which, in the Reign of Terror, would ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 10, Supplementary Number, Issue 263, 1827 • Various

... garden. Walter had just come home from his day's work; he had been plowing. He was a broad-shouldered, lean, powerful, handsome fellow, with a rather slow step, but soldierly carriage. His hands were brown and mighty, and took a little more washing than before. ...
— Home Again • George MacDonald

... put another stick on that fire and hang the kettle on the hob—" she was washing the clay from her hands in an old brass basin. "Don't get peeved with me because I'm grouchy and bossy—" she flung over her shoulder at me. "I always start off badly when I'm tired and that fool question always makes ...
— Little Miss By-The-Day • Lucille Van Slyke

... much as she pleases; she is young. My wife is forty; I wrote to her from the battle-field to go to a ball. And you want a young woman of twenty, who sees her life flitting, and has every illusion, to live in a cloister, or to be always washing her baby like a nurse. You are too much you in your household, and not enough in your administration. I should not say all this to you except for the interest I have for you. Make the mother of your children happy; you have one way to do this: ...
— The Court of the Empress Josephine • Imbert de Saint-Amand

... thought Pepper, and then he sat down on the stern seat and munched away at the sandwich and cake, washing the stuff down with a drink from the ...
— The Mystery at Putnam Hall - The School Chums' Strange Discovery • Arthur M. Winfield

... that the tent cook has to do is to take his two hoosh- pots over to the galley and convey the hoosh and the beverage to the tent, clearing up after each meal and washing up the two pots and the mugs. There are no spoons, etc., to wash, for we each keep our own spoon and pocket-knife in our pockets. We just lick them as clean as possible and replace them in our pockets after ...
— South! • Sir Ernest Shackleton

... Messiah began to make Himself known, His messenger, John, the Desert Priest, began to prepare His way by preaching repentance in the spirit and power of the great Elijah, and then baptizing in the Jordan unto repentance. Such washing was the manner in which the Jews accepted their proselytes, as they called the strangers who embraced the Law. The great purpose of the Old Covenant was accomplished when John, having made his followers ...
— The Chosen People - A Compendium Of Sacred And Church History For School-Children • Charlotte Mary Yonge

... they wash their hands often, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders: and when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not: and many other things there be which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups and pots, brazen vessels, and of tables." Now Saint Matthew was not only a Jew himself, but it is evident, from the whole structure of his Gospel, especially from his numerous references to the Old Testament, ...
— Evidences of Christianity • William Paley

... embowers droopingly— Joying to see some wandering insect won To live in its few rushes, or some locust To pasture on its boughs, or some wild bird Stoop for its freshness from the trackless air: And then should find it but the fountain-head, Long lost, of some great river washing towns And towers, and seeing old woods which will live But by its banks untrod of human foot, Which, when the great sun sinks, lie quivering In light as some thing lieth half of life Before God's foot, waiting a wondrous ...
— Browning's England - A Study in English Influences in Browning • Helen Archibald Clarke

... people went out under the low doorway she looked after them pensively, and remained long looking up at the evening sky, which the open door revealed. At last she tied up her herbs and began washing her bowls, and while engaged at her work she sang. Her voice had the pathetic tremble of old age, but was still true and musical, for she had once been a singer among singers, and the song that she sang—who shall describe it? from what old ...
— Garthowen - A Story of a Welsh Homestead • Allen Raine

... stones, as indifferent to all round and about me as though I were dead. Oh, the long, dreary hours of that melancholy day; it seemed like a year. They tacked and tacked, they were beat and tacked again, the sea washing over me, and the ruffianly sailors trampling upon me without the slightest remorse, whenever they had any occasion to pass back or forward. From my long trance of suffering I was partly roused by the steward shaking my ...
— The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer, Complete • Charles James Lever (1806-1872)

... given to have the infected parts of the floor well washed after every such execution, which, if his domestics neglect, they are in danger of incurring his royal displeasure. I myself heard him give directions, that one of his pages should be whipped, whose turn it was to give notice about washing the floor after an execution, but maliciously had omitted it; by which neglect a young lord of great hopes, coming to an audience, was unfortunately poisoned, although the king at that time had no design against his life. But this good prince was so gracious as to forgive the poor page ...
— Gulliver's Travels - into several remote nations of the world • Jonathan Swift

... when she's your own she'll remain your own all out. She'll stand the washing. I'm an old woman, and ...
— An Old Man's Love • Anthony Trollope

... Bertha would blow soap-bubbles in her hands while we were washing, and then Miss Fennimore came, and I've been naughty now, and I know I shall go on, and ...
— Hopes and Fears - scenes from the life of a spinster • Charlotte M. Yonge

... that rise from the manchet), they make thirty cast, every loaf weighing eighteen ounces into the oven, and sixteen ounces out; and, beside this, they so handle the matter that to every bushel of meal they add only two and twenty, or three and twenty, pound of water, washing also (in some houses) their corn before it go to the mill, whereby their manchet bread is more excellent in colour, and pleasing to the eye, than otherwise it would be. The next sort is named brown bread, ...
— Chronicle and Romance (The Harvard Classics Series) • Jean Froissart, Thomas Malory, Raphael Holinshed

... little Maria will wear it around her waist she will not suffer at the parturition; and the little Maria must pay a peso oro for it—and the scared little lamb paid it, for she had saved a little money which Don Carlos Ojeda gave her for washing—and she wore it when the babe was born; but it ...
— Carmen Ariza • Charles Francis Stocking

... bear them far, but where the first were carried down and came to a bottom, the remainder, finding no farther conveyance, were stopped and interwoven one with another; the stream working the mass into a firmness, and washing down fresh mud. This, settling there, became an accession of matter, as well as cement, to the rubbish, insomuch that the violence of the waters could not remove it, but forced and compressed it all together. Thus its bulk and solidity gained it new subsidies, which gave it extension ...
— Plutarch's Lives • A.H. Clough

... strange positive knowledge, not only as to the extent of the goldmines, but also as to theory and practice of the actual mining. Contemporary writers tell us of the hundreds and hundreds of different strange machines invented for washing out the gold and actually carried around the Horn or over the Isthmus of Panama to San Francisco. They were of all types, from little pocket-sized affairs up to huge arrangements with windmill arms and wings. ...
— The Forty-Niners - A Chronicle of the California Trail and El Dorado • Stewart Edward White

... Washing was done in home-made wooden tubs, and boiling in iron pots similar to those of today. Soap was made from fat ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States - From Interviews with Former Slaves - Florida Narratives • Works Projects Administration

... superiorities. But I'm glad I'm not going to be an orphan, just an orphan, all my life. I'm glad; still, when I think of going away and leaving everybody and everything: the old pump, where I drowned my first little chicken washing it; and the old mulberry-tree, where my first doll was buried; and the garret, where I made up ghost-stories for the girls on rainy days; and the school-room; and even No. 4—when I think of these things, I could be like that man in the Bible (I believe it was David, but it might have been Jonah), ...
— Mary Cary - "Frequently Martha" • Kate Langley Bosher

... still that Wanning could hear a faint, metallic tinkle from the butler's pantry. Old Sam was washing up the silver, which he put away ...
— A Collection of Stories, Reviews and Essays • Willa Cather

... struck the organ again. Then the dancer moved faster; but the ears did not fly and every motion was a jerk. Nevertheless, the princess's heart had now begun to suffocate her. She recalled Gabriel's story of washing off the brown color from the dingy fur in the brook, and her eyes swam with tears at the mere possibility that this might be the object of her search. She had just sense enough to keep still and leave everything to Gabriel. ...
— Jewel's Story Book • Clara Louise Burnham

... lie? Not in wages; for the English were better paid than the Germans. We might go abroad to learn economy, and many other desirable accompaniments of daily life. Nothing amused her more than to see the laundresses and housewives generally, washing the linen at these boiling springs; wash, wash, wash! chatter, chatter, chatter! She thought they must have no water in their own homes, for they would flock in numbers to the springs with their kettles and jugs ...
— The Channings • Mrs. Henry Wood

... worship, viz. of uncleannesses. And then, as to the people, certain purifications were instituted for the removal of certain external uncleannesses; and also expiations from sins; while, as to the priests and Levites, the washing of hands and feet and the shaving of the ...
— Summa Theologica, Part I-II (Pars Prima Secundae) - From the Complete American Edition • Saint Thomas Aquinas

... After washing and dressing, Prince Andrew came into the diplomat's luxurious study and sat down to the dinner prepared for him. Bilibin settled down comfortably ...
— War and Peace • Leo Tolstoy

... of handkerchiefs nicely hemmed and marked (girls used to cross-stitch the marks in their own hair!), or a soft flannel petticoat, cat-stitched at the seams, scalloped with coarse working cotton,—which grows whiter with washing, instead of yellowing like silk,—with three pretty initials on the waistband, would be other capital ...
— St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 5, Nov 1877-Nov 1878 - No 1, Nov 1877 • Various

... roses. Michael was conscious of the scent of these every now and then, and at intervals of the faint, rather sickly smell of ether. A Japan screen, ornamented with storks in gold thread, stood near the door and half-concealed the washing-stand. There was a chest of drawers on one side of the fireplace, a wardrobe with a looking-glass door on the other, a dressing-table to one side of the window, a few prints on the plain blue walls, and a dark blue drugget carpet on the floor; and all these ordinary ...
— Michael • E. F. Benson

... the Fish sat up and had come to his wit, and laughed and said: "Here is a surly one! Why, thou might'st complain more if ye had come to the worse as we have. Come now, all the sort of you, into my house, and drink a cup with us for the washing away of all grudge against the honorable custom of the Fish." Sir Godrick shook his head, but the wrath ran off him and he said: "Sir Knight, thou art debonnaire in thy folly, and I thank thee; this thy bidding ...
— The Sundering Flood • William Morris

... each ward; and most wards, it should in justice be added, are attached to their scrub-ladies. Certainly I was to find that Ward W was attached to Mrs. Mappin. Mrs. Mappin was washing up. Private Wood had been helping her. The completion of his task he delegated to me. "Mrs. Mappin, this is our new orderly. He'll help you finish the lunch-dishes." Private Wood then slid into his tunic, snatched his cap from a nail in ...
— Observations of an Orderly - Some Glimpses of Life and Work in an English War Hospital • Ward Muir

... tribes. Catlin relates it of the Mandans, and Hearne of the Chipewyans. The latter considered it a crime to kiss wives and children after a massacre without the bath of purification. Could one know where and when that universal custom of washing blood-guilt arose, one mystery ...
— Pathfinders of the West • A. C. Laut

... equipped with electricity from top to bottom that one servant is able to do what formerly required the service of several, and in some houses servants seem to be needed hardly at all, the mistresses doing their own cooking, ironing, and washing by means of electricity. ...
— Marvels of Modern Science • Paul Severing

... has been with me, which, however, is only the last few days. I called him professor just for fun, as it sounds better with the public. But I'll let you ask him yourself. He must be through washing by now. It may be he is a runaway boy. It wouldn't be the first time I've had 'em join me. Sometimes they get sorry and run back home again, and sometimes they drift away and I don't see 'em again. But we'll soon find out if this is ...
— Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on an Auto Tour • Laura Lee Hope

... their defects, in producing surface leakage. Washing with weak ammonia, or with dilute soda solution, followed by distilled water, is recommended for the surface, if there is any trouble with surface leakage. It may also be rubbed over ...
— The Standard Electrical Dictionary - A Popular Dictionary of Words and Terms Used in the Practice - of Electrical Engineering • T. O'Conor Slone

... three pale-blue butterflies danced drowsily in and out a cluster of honeysuckle that trailed downwards, nearly touching Thelma's shoulder, and a diminutive black kitten, with a pink ribbon round its neck, sat gravely on the garden path, washing its face with its tiny velvety paws, in that deliberate and precise fashion, common to the spoiled and petted members of its class. Everything was still and peaceful as became a Sunday afternoon,—so that when the sound of a heavy advancing footstep disturbed the intense ...
— Thelma • Marie Corelli

... husband's side, she found him sitting up in bed as composedly as if no trouble had ever disturbed the serenity of his mind, looking much as he did in their bridal hour. He had called for a bowl of water and a towel, and was calmly washing himself. Bestowing on her a loving look as ...
— The Cabin on the Prairie • C. H. (Charles Henry) Pearson

... here per Capt Waterhouse, has Lodged and Boarded at the house of your Petr. per Order of Benja. Pollard Esq Sheriff of the County of Suffolk, your Petr. humbly Prays your Excellency and hon'rs will be pleased to Ascertain the Allowance your Petr. is to receive for their Board, Washing and Lodging for Twenty One Days, the time they have been at your Petr. house, and your Petr. as in duty Bound ...
— Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period - Illustrative Documents • Various

... of the spreading skirts of the range, and some distance from the road, lay a pool, made by damming a burn, and used, in the shearing season, for washing sheep. Surrounded by brushy woods, and very damp and dark, at other seasons it was deserted. Bobby found this secluded place with his nose, curled up under a hazel thicket and fell sound asleep. And while he slept, a nipping wind from ...
— Greyfriars Bobby • Eleanor Atkinson

... are believed to owe their origin to the surface drainage of the E. Mendips, which percolates through some vertical fissure, perhaps at Downhead, to the heart of the hills, and are conducted by some natural culvert beneath the intervening coal measures, washing out as they go the soluble mineral salts, and whilst still retaining their heat emerge again at the first opportunity at Bath. The Romans were the first to make use of this natural lavatory, and with ...
— Somerset • G.W. Wade and J.H. Wade

... Perronel with him, as he was like to have done. To end my story, here am I, getting showers of gold coins one day and nought but kicks and gibes the next, while my good woman keeps house nigh here on the banks of the Thames with Gaffer Martin. Her Flemish thrift has set her to the washing and clear—starching of the lawyers' ruffs, whereby she makes enough to supply the defects of my scanty days, or when I have to follow my lord's grace out of her reach, sweet soul. There's my tale, nevoys. And now, have ye a ...
— The Armourer's Prentices • Charlotte M. Yonge

... a curve in the river and came on a quiet bay where they were washing elephants. The current swung the tree inshore to a point where it struck a submerged sand-bank and stuck there; and there we lay with the current racing by, and King bobbing up and down with his head out of water, and I too weak by that time to break off the twig around which ...
— Caves of Terror • Talbot Mundy

... Edward the Fourth's Liber Niger Domus, soap was used only for washing clothes. The yeoman lavender, or washerman, was to take from the Great Spicery 'as muche whyte soape, greye, and blacke, as can be thought resonable by proufe of the Countrollers,' and therewith 'tenderly ...
— Early English Meals and Manners • Various

... the boys pitched in and helped wash and wipe dishes, although Miss Ruth protested. Used as they were to camping, washing dishes was ...
— The Ranger Boys and the Border Smugglers • Claude A. Labelle

... black mischief now cease beating, Yet some irons still are heating. You Sir Bridegroom, Set all this while up as a mark to shoot at, We here discharge you of your bedfellow, She loves no barber's washing . ...
— The Noble Spanish Soldier • Thomas Dekker

... birth, marriage, and death; lustrations on the eve of battle; lustrations at regular periods, of the dwelling, estate, district, or city. And, as in Japan, no one could approach a temple without a preliminary washing of hands. But ancient Shinto exacted more than the Greek or the Roman cult: it required the erection of special houses for birth, —"parturition-houses"; special houses for the consummation of ...
— Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation • Lafcadio Hearn

... become slightly tainted may be quite restored by washing it in water in which is a teaspoonful of borax, cutting away every part in the ...
— Culture and Cooking - Art in the Kitchen • Catherine Owen

... than a week Old Tarwater was up and limping about the housework of the cabin, cooking and dish-washing for the five men of the creek. Genuine sourdoughs (pioneers) they were, tough and hard-bitten, who had been buried so deeply inside the Circle that they did not know there was a Klondike Strike. The news he brought them was their first word of it. They lived on an ...
— The Red One • Jack London

... their return, agreed with Roger that it was of no use to try to conceal his identity; and the lad, after washing the stains from his face and hands, took his accustomed place at the banquet, and was greeted by many of ...
— By Right of Conquest - Or, With Cortez in Mexico • G. A. Henty

... of responsibility Farragut attributed in great part his fearlessness in it, which was well known to the service before his hour of strain. It was much that the government found ready for the extreme demands of the war a number of officers, who, instead of supervising the washing of lower decks and stowing of holds during their best years, had been put betimes in charge of the ship. From there to the captain's berth was but a small step. "Passed midshipman," says one of Cooper's characters, "is a good grade ...
— From Sail to Steam, Recollections of Naval Life • Captain A. T. Mahan

... was over, and the old woman was quietly washing up her few plates and dishes, when Bouzille, who had gone down to the river to fetch the rushes, suddenly called ...
— Fantomas • Pierre Souvestre

... the washing and stopping as if astonished at the statement). And is it only now you're after finding that out! Sure the whole countryside knowed it ...
— The Drone - A Play in Three Acts • Rutherford Mayne

... promote a good object, as to interpret the Constitution in a manner utterly at variance with the intentions and arrangements of the contracting parties; but, confessing the guilt of the nation, acknowledging the dreadful specifications in the bond, washing our hands in the waters of repentance from all further participation in this criminal alliance, and resolving that we will sustain none other than a free and righteous government, let us glory in the name of revolutionists, unfurl the banner of disunion, and consecrate our talents ...
— The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus • American Anti-Slavery Society

... the average contour of the waves of rock is somewhat as represented in Fig. 16 a, and the little cliffs or hills formed at the edges of the beds (whether by fracture, or, as oftener happens in such countries, by gradual washing away under the surge of ancient seas) are no higher, in proportion to the extent of surface, than the little steps seen in the centre of the figure. Such is the nature, and such the scale, of the ranges of hills which form our own downs and wolds, and the French coteaux beside ...
— Modern Painters, Volume IV (of V) • John Ruskin

... him but which would probably not have justified an English barrister in throwing up his brief. The case was called; he was absent; the judge sent to his hotel and got back a message: "Tell the judge I'm washing my hands." One client received advice much to this effect: "I can win your case; I can get you $600. I can also make an honest family miserable. But I shall not take your case, and I shall not take your fee. One piece of advice I will give you gratis: Go home and think ...
— Abraham Lincoln • Lord Charnwood

... been washing her legs at the well gets through before disappearing into the cow stable.] ...
— The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann - Volume I • Gerhart Hauptmann

... whispered Maggie, as a tear rolled down her worn and faded cheek and splashed into the pan of water in which she was washing the supper dishes. "Thanks be to God for bringin' him back even at the ...
— The Alchemist's Secret • Isabel Cecilia Williams

... description. Birds of starry plumage flitted through the air, as they leaped from tree to tree, uttering a short, wild note; through the spreading branches sighed the murmuring breeze that came from off the ocean; round the shore the low tones of the gently-washing surf were borne as it came in in faint undulations ...
— Cord and Creese • James de Mille

... they would hear Dairyman Crick's voice, lecturing the non-resident milkers for arriving late, and speaking sharply to old Deborah Fyander for not washing her hands. ...
— Tess of the d'Urbervilles - A Pure Woman • Thomas Hardy

... Biggs; "don't you talk to me about washing your 'ands of it. You finish your trick and give me my watch back agin same ...
— Odd Craft, Complete • W.W. Jacobs

... finished. "Rabbit is good, and," he continued, lolling back lazily and contentedly before the fire, "there's always some bright spot to light the darkest cloud—we've no dishes to wash. A rinse of the tea pail, a rinse of our cups, and, presto! the thing's done. I detest dish-washing." ...
— The Gaunt Gray Wolf - A Tale of Adventure With Ungava Bob • Dillon Wallace

... reprovingly, 'you do make such a mess.' She brushed tobacco ashes from his coat. Mother, without looking up, went on talking to him about the bills-washing, school-books, boots, blouses, oil, and peat. And as she did so a puzzled expression was visible in his eyes akin to the expression in Jane Anne's. Both enjoyed a similar mental confusion sometimes as to words and meanings and the ...
— A Prisoner in Fairyland • Algernon Blackwood

... Kohlmarkt, where he lived. A pitiable description is given of the lodging he then occupied. It was on the sixth story, in a room without stove or window. In winter his breath froze on his thin coverlet, and the water, that in the morning he had to fetch himself from the spring for washing, was frequently changed into a lump of ice before his arrival in that elevated region. Life was indeed hard; but he was constantly at work, and, having made a precious "find" on an old bookstall one day of Fux's "Gradus ad Parnassum," in a very dilapidated condition, but very cheap, ...
— Great Men and Famous Women, Vol. 8 (of 8) • Various

... to get the big herd in shape for the night, and Ted was washing himself and putting on some clean clothes when a soldier dashed up on a horse and asked ...
— Ted Strong in Montana - With Lariat and Spur • Edward C. Taylor

... canon-walls were almost straight up. It looked as if we might step off into a very world of mountains. Soon Old Baldy wore a crown of gleaming gold. The sun was up. We walked on and soon came to a brook. We were washing our faces in its icy waters when we heard twigs breaking, so we stood perfectly still. From out the undergrowth of birch and willows came a deer with two fawns. They stopped to drink, and nibbled the bushes. But soon they scented strangers, and, looking about with their ...
— Letters of a Woman Homesteader • Elinore Pruitt Stewart

... find a slut sleeping in the chimney-corner, when she should be washing of her dishes, or doing something else which she hath left undone: her I pinch about the arms, for not laying her arms to her labour. Some I find in their bed snorting and sleeping, and their houses lying as clean as a nasty dog's kennel; in one corner bones, in another egg-shells, behind ...
— The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-night's Dream' • Compiled by Frank Sidgwick

... lad; and he rushed upstairs, three steps at a time, to begin washing his hands, thinking the while over his encounter with his ...
— The Weathercock - Being the Adventures of a Boy with a Bias • George Manville Fenn

... no time, but that all stood still. Without, the palace was as still as death on the one side—for the King had ordered it so—and on the other there was the noise from the river, little and clear and distinct, of the water washing in the sedges and against the stones, and the cries of the boatmen on the further shore, and the rattle of their oars as ...
— The History of Richard Raynal, Solitary • Robert Hugh Benson

... It's a kind of calico, I guess; but them's not fast colors, friend. I should say, now, you had been taken in pretty much by that bit of goods. It aint the kind of print, now, that's not afeard of washing." ...
— Guy Rivers: A Tale of Georgia • William Gilmore Simms

... exclaimed Euripides, and certain it is a large measure of joy surrounds those who live in an atmosphere of music. It has a magic wand that lifts man beyond the petty worries of his existence. "Music is a shower-bath of the soul," said Schopenhauer, "washing away all that is impure." Or as Auerbach put it: "Music washes from the soul ...
— For Every Music Lover - A Series of Practical Essays on Music • Aubertine Woodward Moore

... seated beneath a great oak tree. Fifteen there were in all, making themselves merry with feasting and drinking as they sat around a huge pasty, to which each man helped himself, thrusting his hands into the pie, and washing down that which they ate with great horns of ale which they drew all foaming from a barrel that stood nigh. Each man was clad in Lincoln green, and a fine show they made, seated upon the sward beneath ...
— The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood • Howard Pyle

... you not Sexton and Dog-Whipper, worth Three Pounds a Year?—Then you begg'd the Church-Wardens to let your Wife have the Washing and Darning of the Surplice and Church-Linen, which brings you in Thirteen Shillings and Four Pence.—Then you have Six Shillings and Eight Pence for oiling and winding up the Clock, both paid you at Easter.—The Pinder's Place, ...
— A Political Romance • Laurence Sterne

... orders,—for life and death, the securing of his prisoners, and the washing his charger's shoulder,—were given in the same unmoved and equable voice, of which no accent or tone intimated that the speaker considered one direction as of ...
— Old Mortality, Complete, Illustrated • Sir Walter Scott

... experience. Why, Mrs. Owen, I never feel the privilege of sitting down after the labors of the day have wearied mind and body, without offering my services, ignorant as I am of housekeeping, and awkward as I know I must be. What would be said of me, if I did not assist in getting tea, or washing the dishes, and even helping through with the Saturday's work, to say nothing of the Sunday dinner, with its numberless guests to be waited upon and entertained, upon the one day appointed ...
— Clemence - The Schoolmistress of Waveland • Retta Babcock

... Nancy, washing dishes at the sink, looked up in surprise. Nancy had been working in Miss Polly's kitchen only two months, but already she knew that her mistress did ...
— Pollyanna • Eleanor H. Porter

... in, his mouth dry and dust-covered, dragging his hind leg, that hung loose like a flail; then he laid his head in the girl's lap. She crooned and cried over him all day, binding up the bruised limb, washing his eyes and mouth, putting him in her own bed. There was no one to go for her father, and if there were, he could not leave the crossing. When Sanders came home he felt the leg over carefully, the girl watching eagerly. "No, Kate, child, yees can't do ...
— A Gentleman Vagabond and Some Others • F. Hopkinson Smith

... accumulation of used linen had been pressed down in an old wine-cask, and boiling water was now being poured upon it through a cloth covered with a layer of wood ashes. In these rural places the washing-day is usually once in two or three months. This simplifies matters, but it needs a considerable stock of linen, which, by-the-bye, peasants generally possess. The wash-house odour that arose from the lessive was not grateful, but I tried to accommodate ...
— Two Summers in Guyenne • Edward Harrison Barker

... if you please'm; look at the sheep-mark on the shoulder. And here's one marked for Gatesgarth, and three that come from Little-town. They're ALWAYS marked at washing!" ...
— A Collection of Beatrix Potter Stories • Beatrix Potter

... difficult to guess what could be the object of the elephant in this curious performance. Perhaps it may have conceived a hope either of driving them out of the tree, or forcibly washing them from the branches; or perhaps it merely designed to make their situation as uncomfortable as possible, and thus to some ...
— The Cliff Climbers - A Sequel to "The Plant Hunters" • Captain Mayne Reid

... by a male or female head lying back upon them. True, they wore powder and pomatum then—but they never leant back; such a solace, and solecism in manners, was reserved for the privacy of the bedroom and the arm-chair covered with cotton pique or washing chintz. Under the new manners, and since the introduction of the graceful lounge, the antimacassar doubtless has saved many ancestral works, but nowadays we wear neither powder nor pomatum. On the contrary, we dye, dry, and frizzle ...
— Needlework As Art • Marian Alford

... number. The delusion shared by the whole working class that they can make work for each other, at wages fixed by themselves, is ludicrous; a community cannot subsist 'by taking in each other's washing.' Or the supply of importable food may fail by the peopling up of the countries which grow it. Any conditions which make it no longer worth while to invest capital in business, or which destroy credit, ...
— Outspoken Essays • William Ralph Inge

... preservative against the infection, other than holding garlic and rue in his mouth, and smoking tobacco. This I also had from his own mouth. And his wife's remedy was washing her head in vinegar and sprinkling her head-clothes so with vinegar as to keep them always moist, and if the smell of any of those she waited on was more than ordinary offensive, she snuffed vinegar up her nose and sprinkled vinegar upon her head-clothes, ...
— A Journal of the Plague Year • Daniel Defoe

... have to be conveyed down, the emptied and lighter dishes upstairs. The hot water from the kitchen boiler is distributed easily by conducting pipes into the lower rooms, so that in every room and bedroom hot and cold water can at all times be obtained for washing or cleaning purposes; and as on every floor there is a sink for receiving waste water, the carrying of heavy pails from floor to floor is not required. The scullery, which is by the side of the kitchen, is provided with a copper and all the appliances ...
— Hygeia, a City of Health • Benjamin Ward Richardson

... year, sir, have I tried by gentle and patient means to draw you from this wickedness, and to show you that whilst washing the outside you should also cleanse that which is within. Finding that all I could do was of no avail, I have sought assistance from that clement which brings all things to an end, and I promise you, sir, that, if this do not mend you, I know ...
— The Tales Of The Heptameron, Vol. IV. (of V.) • Margaret, Queen Of Navarre

... people assembled in the dining-room, after brushing and washing up, a surprise awaited them. They had a table to themselves, ordered by Dunston Porter, and decorated with a big bouquet of roses and carnations. A full ...
— Dave Porter and the Runaways - Last Days at Oak Hall • Edward Stratemeyer

... have paid them, and then I have done with the rest what seemed good to me. You must make up your mind to work and gain your bread as I have done. You must know that I am a porter of the king of this city, and I often go and work at the palace. To-morrow, they have told me, the washing is to be done, so you must rise early and go with me there. I will set you to work with the other women, and when it is time for them to go home to dinner, you will say that you are not hungry, and while you are ...
— Italian Popular Tales • Thomas Frederick Crane

... natural reservoirs. By restraining the streams in flood and replenishing them in drought they make possible the use of waters otherwise wasted. They prevent the soil from washing, and so protect the storage reservoirs from filling up with silt. Forest conservation is therefore an essential ...
— State of the Union Addresses of Theodore Roosevelt • Theodore Roosevelt

... the gramophone. Her most recent occupation seemed to have been something with a good deal of yellow soap in it. As a matter of fact—there are no secrets between our readers and ourselves—she had been washing a shirt. A useful occupation, and an honourable, but one that tends to produce a certain homeliness ...
— Psmith in the City • P. G. Wodehouse

... tuition of children so expensive, that none but the very better class could scrape money enough together to send their children to be instructed. Under the present system, every idle ragged child in the streets, by washing his face and hands, and presenting himself to the free school of his ward, can receive the same benefit ...
— Life in the Clearings versus the Bush • Susanna Moodie

... and the manner in which it is collected. Process of washing it. Its value in Africa. Of ivory. Surprise of the Negroes at the eagerness of the Europeans for this commodity. Scattered teeth frequently picked up in the woods. Mode of hunting the elephant. Some reflections on the unimproved state of ...
— Life and Travels of Mungo Park in Central Africa • Mungo Park

... the marketing, meal times, and all other household-matters. Master, mistress (in Mr. Folger's home,) and domestics were disciples, and obeyed the scamp with an implicitness and prostrate humility even more melancholy than absurd, both as to housekeeping and as to the ceremonies, washing of feet, etc., which he enjoined. When he was angry with his female disciples, he frequently whipped them; but, being a monstrous coward, he never tried it on a man. The least opposition or contradiction threw him into a great rage, and set him screaming, and cursing, and gesticulating ...
— The Humbugs of the World • P. T. Barnum

... through the body, instead of a robber: he would not have believed that the fate of his life depended on certain verses on a china vase: nor would he, at last, have broken this precious talisman, by washing it with hot water. Henceforward, let Murad the Unlucky be named Murad the Imprudent: let Saladin preserve the surname he merits, and be henceforth ...
— Murad the Unlucky and Other Tales • Maria Edgeworth

... philosophy of life. Donkin said:—"You put no more weight on a rope than a bloody sparrer." He disdained him. Belfast, ready for a fight, exclaimed provokingly:—"You don't kill yourself, old man!"—"Would you?" he retorted with extreme, scorn—and Belfast retired. One morning, as we were washing decks, Mr. Baker called to him:—"Bring your broom over here, ...
— The Nigger Of The "Narcissus" - A Tale Of The Forecastle • Joseph Conrad

... with the traditional pungent seasoning, they are content to leave piquancy and variety of effect to others."... Once in Munich in a second storey window of the Bayerischebank I saw a small boy, about ten years old, sitting outside on the sill, washing the panes of glass. Opposite him on the same sill a dachshund reposed on her paws, regarding her master affectionately. Between the two stood a half-filled toby of foaming Lowenbrau, which, from time to time, the lad raised to his lips, quaffing ...
— The Merry-Go-Round • Carl Van Vechten

... line was once more trailed behind, but this time without success, and at the end of a few minutes the boat was guided into a narrow passage amongst the rocks, below a high forbidding headland where the long slimy sea-weed that clung to the granite was washing to and fro, as the waves rushed foaming in and out among the huge blocks of stone, some of which were every now and then invisible, and then seemed to rise out of the sea like the backs of huge shaggy ...
— Menhardoc • George Manville Fenn

... a fresh disaster had arisen; the steam steering-gear had come to grief, and the old, long-neglected wheel had to be brought into use. It had not been used for years, and though constantly cleaned and kept in order, the salt water had been washing over it now for hours, and it was very hard to turn. The question now was, should they remain in the open sea, ...
— The Empire Annual for Girls, 1911 • Various

... generally were all sacred, all in irreproachable order, all objects of the greatest value and interest to Mrs. Cox and her niece. You see there were no children in this comfortable menage and really, when the baking and the washing and the preserving and the churning were all done with early in the day or in the week there remained a good deal of time on Mrs. Cox's hands, which in her earnest womanly heart she felt she must fill up in some way. So it came that all this ...
— Crowded Out! and Other Sketches • Susie F. Harrison

... of course! They prepare a special cutlet for her; it must not be too fat. And I do the washing—the dog's washing, ...
— Redemption and Two Other Plays • Leo Tolstoy et al

... the first importance, though, properly polished, they look well. But no bath is complete without one of those attractive bridges or trays where one puts the sponges and the soap. Conveniences like that are a direct stimulus to washing. The first time I met one I washed myself all over two or three times simply to make the most of knowing where the soap was. Now and then, in fact, in a sort of bravado I deliberately lost it, so as to be able to ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, March 31, 1920 • Various

... struggle for supremacy, for the biggest and ripest plums in this new land of opportunity. The dollar-fight had begun, and the things that already marked its presence loomed monstrous and grotesque to Philip, as if jeering at the forgotten efforts of those whom the sea was washing away. And suddenly it struck Philip that the sea, working ceaselessly, digging away at its dead, was not the enemy of the nameless creatures in the gun-case coffins, but that it was a friend, stanch through centuries, rescuing ...
— Flower of the North • James Oliver Curwood

... dull-eyed Knows not nor feels Whither to fly nor hide While the House reels. The noise of rain that falls On the roof affrighteth me, Washing away the ...
— Agamemnon • Aeschylus

... set a curb box some flat stones should be laid around the curb cock and the box set on these stones. Then the space around the box and pipe should be closed in with brick or other covering to keep the sand from washing in on the curb cock. The box should be adjusted for height and then held in place by placing the curb key rod in place and holding the rod and box while the trench is filled. The refill should be tamped evenly on all sides of ...
— Elements of Plumbing • Samuel Dibble

... washing windows when Tim Jones brought her the letter bearing the Davenport postmark. Melinda had purposely abstained from writing home until Richard came; and so the letter was in his handwriting, which his mother ...
— Ethelyn's Mistake • Mary Jane Holmes

... he had reached the age of sixteen and would give his mother a good-night kiss every evening, he used to carry the icy feeling of the embrace into the world of dreams. One day in passing a half-open door he had caught sight of a maidservant washing herself, and that was the solitary recollection which had in any way troubled his peace of mind from the days of puberty till the time of marriage. Afterward he had found his wife strictly obedient to her conjugal duties but had himself felt ...
— Nana, The Miller's Daughter, Captain Burle, Death of Olivier Becaille • Emile Zola

... to be left behind in a discovery of such a nature. When we came to the place we found it was on the west side of the river, not in the main river, but in another small river or stream which came from the west, and ran into the other at that place. We fell to raking in the sand, and washing it in our hands; and we seldom took up a handful of sand but we washed some little round lumps as big as a pin's head, or sometimes as big as a grape stone, into our hands; and we found, in two or three hours' time, that every one had got some, so we agreed to ...
— The Life, Adventures & Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton • Daniel Defoe

... very kindly and homely. There was a farmer of the name of Bois, in whose fields we were quartered, and who was a real good friend to many of us. We built him a wooden barn among us in our spare time, and many a time I and Jeb Seaton, my rear-rank man, have hung out his washing, for the smell of the wet linen seemed to take us both straight home as nothing else could do. I have often wondered whether that good man and his wife are still living, though I think it hardly likely, for they were of a hale middle-age at the time. Jim would come with ...
— The Great Shadow and Other Napoleonic Tales • Arthur Conan Doyle

... worked in blind, either through a paper pattern or directly on to the leather with the tools, and any inlays stuck on (see page 213), the cover should be well washed with clean water. Some finishers prefer to use common vinegar or diluted acetic acid for washing up books. If vinegar is used it must be of the best quality, and must not contain any sulphuric acid. Cheap, crude vinegar is certain to be injurious to the leather. Porous leather, such as calf or sheep skin, will need to be washed over with ...
— Bookbinding, and the Care of Books - A handbook for Amateurs, Bookbinders & Librarians • Douglas Cockerell

... as a laundryman, and in some cities the Chinese colonists do the whole of the laundry-work. In San Francisco, where there are thousands of Chinese, all the washing is performed by them. They work in the open air, just as the English and Scotch women used to do in their public washing-grounds, standing in the water rubbing and wringing their clothes. They have a curious practice in ironing, of spraying the ...
— Chatterbox, 1905. • Various

... the ghost! 'I've often heard tell o' the Bannisdale Lady,' he said, 'an now I've seen her!' She asked him to sit down a minute to rest himself, and he fainted straight away. He's that old Scarsbrook, you know, whose wife does our washing. They live in that cottage by the weir, the other end of the park. I must go! Mrs. Denton's giving him some brandy—and Alan's gone down. ...
— Helbeck of Bannisdale, Vol. I. • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... separate Krishna from Dhananjaya. I know the magnanimity of Krishna; I know the firm devotion of Arjuna towards him, I know that Dhananjaya, who is Kesava's life, is incapable of being given up by the latter. Save only a vessel of water, save only the washing of his feet, save only the (usual) enquiries after the welfare (of those he will see), Janardana will not accept any other hospitality or set his eyes on any other thing. Offer him, however, O king, that hospitality which is the most agreeable to that illustrious one deserving of every respect, ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 2 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli

... Kensington, once again. The laburnum was in full blossom, and the breeze uplifted the light drooping branches of it, making all their golden glory dance in the sunshine. There must have been rain in the night, too, for the stone basin was full of water, in which the sparrows were busy washing, sending up tiny iridescent jets and fountains from their swiftly fluttering wings. It was delicious to Dominic. He felt very safe, very gay. Only a heavy ill- favoured tabby cat came from nowhere. It had designs upon the sparrows. Twice it climbed stealthily ...
— The Far Horizon • Lucas Malet

... newspapers had not come yet. Mme. Cibot, moreover, kept their clothes, their rooms, and the landing as clean as a Flemish interior. As for Schmucke, he enjoyed unhoped-for happiness; Mme. Cibot had made life easy for him; he paid her about six francs a month, and she took charge of his linen, washing, and mending. Altogether, his expenses amounted to sixty-six francs per month (for he spent fifteen francs on tobacco), and sixty-six francs multiplied by twelve produces the sum total of seven hundred and ninety-two ...
— Poor Relations • Honore de Balzac

... hardly knew him. But she began at once, full of hope, by asking for some apartments all to herself and a pot in which to boil water. As soon as the water was heated she steeped some of her berries in it and gave the mixture to the king's attendants and told them to wash his body with it. The first washing did so much good that the king slept quietly all the night. Again the second day she did the same, and this time the king declared he was hungry, and called for food. After the third day he was quite well, only very weak from his long illness. On the fourth ...
— The Olive Fairy Book • Various

... date just four days off, for Saturday. That was not one moment more of time than Mrs. Halliday needed in which to put the house in order—even with the hearty cooperation of Don, who insisted upon doing his part, which included the washing ...
— The Wall Street Girl • Frederick Orin Bartlett

... wish it at dish-washing time, I bet! But they are a lively bunch. I wonder sometimes how Mother escapes nerves. If she feels irritable or tired she seldom shows it. I believe six of us can ask her questions at once and she knows ...
— Amanda - A Daughter of the Mennonites • Anna Balmer Myers



Words linked to "Washing" :   washup, laundering, rinse, household linen, soaking, work, bathing, soak, window-washing, washing soda, rinsing, white goods, ablution, wash, garment



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