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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



... failed to awaken that solemn happy heartache that we feel in looking upon the tumbled ruins of some ancient temple. We could never quite forget that the buildings of the Court of Honor were fabrics of frame and stucco sprayed with whitewash, and that the statues were kneaded out of plaster: they were set there for a year, not for all time. But there is at Paestum a crumbled Doric temple to Poseidon, built in ancient days to remind the reverent of that incalculable vastness that ...
— The Theory of the Theatre • Clayton Hamilton
... church with a front so modest that you hardly recognise it till you see the leather curtain. I never see a leather curtain without lifting it; it is sure to cover a constituted scene of some sort—good, bad or indifferent. The scene this time was meagre—whitewash and tarnished candlesticks and mouldy muslin flowers being its principal features. I shouldn't have remained if I hadn't been struck with the attitude of the single worshipper—a young priest kneeling before one of the sidealtars, who, as I entered, lifted his head and gave me a ...
— Italian Hours • Henry James
... both the prison, and the palace of the republic, an authentic portrait of Dante. It was believed to be in fresco, on a wall which afterward, by some strange neglect or inadvertency, had been covered with whitewash. Signor Liverati mentioned the circumstance merely to deplore the loss of so precious a portrait, and to regret the almost utter ...
— The Crayon Papers • Washington Irving
... "Whitewash your scoundrel-population; sweep out your abominable gutters (if not in the name of God, ye brutish slatterns, then in the name of Cholera and the Royal College of Surgeons): do these two things;—and observe, much cheaper if you ...
— Latter-Day Pamphlets • Thomas Carlyle
... its stone walls were covered with whitewash. For furniture, a whitewood stool showing the marks of time and hard wear, a rough deal table, a narrow iron bedstead with thin mattress, a pillow filled with horsehair, and a coarse grey blanket such as is used for covering horses. These details, lighted ...
— The Idler Magazine, Volume III, June 1893 - An Illustrated Monthly • Various


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