WHITEWASH

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does whitewash mean? 

• WHITEWASH (noun)
  The noun WHITEWASH has 3 senses:

1. a defeat in which the losing person or team fails to score

2. wash consisting of lime and size in water; used for whitening walls and other surfaces

3. a specious or deceptive clearing that attempts to gloss over failings and defects

  Familiarity information: WHITEWASH used as a noun is uncommon.

• WHITEWASH (verb)
  The verb WHITEWASH has 3 senses:

1. cover up a misdemeanor, fault, or error

2. cover with whitewash

3. exonerate by means of a perfunctory investigation or through biased presentation of data

  Familiarity information: WHITEWASH used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WHITEWASH (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A defeat in which the losing person or team fails to score

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("whitewash" is a kind of...):

defeat; licking (an unsuccessful ending to a struggle or contest)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Wash consisting of lime and size in water; used for whitening walls and other surfaces

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("whitewash" is a kind of...):

wash (a thin coat of water-base paint)

Derivation:

whitewash (cover with whitewash)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A specious or deceptive clearing that attempts to gloss over failings and defects

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("whitewash" is a kind of...):

clearing (the act of freeing from suspicion)

Derivation:

whitewash (exonerate by means of a perfunctory investigation or through biased presentation of data)

whitewash (cover up a misdemeanor, fault, or error)

• WHITEWASH (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they whitewash    ... he / she / it whitewashes   
Past simple: whitewashed   
Past participle: whitewashed   
-ing form: whitewashing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cover up a misdemeanor, fault, or error

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Synonyms:

gloss over; hush up; sleek over; whitewash

Context example:

She tried to gloss over her mistakes

Hypernyms (to "whitewash" is one way to...):

cover; cover up (hide from view or knowledge)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

whitewash (a specious or deceptive clearing that attempts to gloss over failings and defects)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cover with whitewash

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

whitewash walls

Hypernyms (to "whitewash" is one way to...):

wash (apply a thin coating of paint, metal, etc., to)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "whitewash"):

calcimine (cover with calcimine)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

whitewash (wash consisting of lime and size in water; used for whitening walls and other surfaces)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Exonerate by means of a perfunctory investigation or through biased presentation of data

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "whitewash" is one way to...):

acquit; assoil; clear; discharge; exculpate; exonerate (pronounce not guilty of criminal charges)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

whitewash (a specious or deceptive clearing that attempts to gloss over failings and defects)

 Context examples 

A small side door led into the whitewashed corridor from which the three bedrooms opened.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You shall go to a place I have in the south of France: a whitewashed villa on the shores of the Mediterranean.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Through this crevice a small room was visible, whitewashed and clean but very bare of furniture.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

The carpet prevents any possibility of a trap-door, and the ceiling is of the ordinary whitewashed kind.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The walls were whitewashed as white as milk, and the patchwork counterpane made my eyes quite ache with its brightness.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

With dramatic suddenness he struck a match, and by its light exposed a stain of blood upon the whitewashed wall.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“This is the 'Mouton d'Or,'” said Aylward, as they pulled up their horses at a whitewashed straggling hostel.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

From the windows of our little whitewashed house, which stood high upon a grassy headland, we looked down upon the whole sinister semi-circle of Mounts Bay, that old death trap of sailing vessels, with its fringe of black cliffs and surge-swept reefs on which innumerable seamen have met their end.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He led us down a passage, opened a barred door, passed down a winding stair, and brought us to a whitewashed corridor with a line of doors on each side.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Whitcross is no town, nor even a hamlet; it is but a stone pillar set up where four roads meet: whitewashed, I suppose, to be more obvious at a distance and in darkness.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)