whitewash

white·wash

a mixture of lime, whiting, size, water, etc., for whitening walls, etc.
a cosmetic formerly used for making the skin fair
1. a glossing over or concealing of faults or defects in an effort to exonerate or give the appearance of soundness
2. something said or done for this purpose
Informal, Sports a defeat in which the loser scores no points

to cover with whitewash
to gloss over or conceal the faults or defects of; give a favorable interpretation of or a falsely virtuous appearance to
Informal, Sports to defeat (an opponent) soundly

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"whitewash." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 14 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/whitewash>.

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whitewash. (n.d.). Retrieved January 14th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/whitewash

whitewash

noun

A mixture of lime and water, often with whiting, size, or glue added, that is used to whiten walls, fences, or other structures.
Concealment or palliation of flaws or failures.
A defeat in a game in which the loser scores no points.

transitive verb

white·washed, white·wash·ing, white·wash·es

To paint or coat with whitewash.
To conceal or gloss over (wrongdoing, for example).
Sports To defeat (an opponent) in a game in which the opponent does not score.

Related Forms:

white′wash′er
noun

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"whitewash." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 14 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/whitewash>.

APA Style

whitewash. (n.d.). Retrieved January 14th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/whitewash

Noun

(plural whitewashes)

A lime and water mixture for painting walls and fences bright white.
(sports) A complete victory or series of victories without suffering any losses; a clean sweep.

Verb

(third-person singular simple present whitewashes, present participle whitewashing, simple past and past participle whitewashed)

To paint over with a lime and water mixture so as to brighten up a wall or fence.
The houses looked very bright when they whitewashed the whole neighborhood.
(idiomatic) To cover over errors or bad actions.
In his sermon, the minister didn't try to whitewash over the sins of his church.
(dated) To repay the financial debts of (another person).
(baseball, slang, dated, late, 19th century, archaic) To prevent a team from scoring any runs.
(acting) To choose white film or television actors to portray characters that were Asian, African, or other races.
(pejorative) To make over (an Asian, African, or person of another race, especially a woman) to look Caucasian.