Washed

ppl. a. [f. WASH v. + -ED¹.]

  1.  Cleansed by rubbing in water or other liquid; also, moistened or drenched with water.

1557.  North, trans. Gueuara’s Diall Pr., IV. vii. (1568), 125 b. A paire of washed or perfume gloues.

1586.  Whitney, Choice Emblems, 136. With Towell faire, to wipe theire washed hands.

1605.  Shaks., Lear, I. i. 271. The Iewels of our Father, with wash’d eies Cordelia leaues you.

1620.  Markham, Farew. Husb., xiii. 104. Now it is not amisse that I speake here a word or two of washt corne, or the washing of corne.

1705.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4184/1, 302. Bags of Cloth wash’d and unwash’d Spanish Felt Wooll.

1812.  Byron, Ch. Har., I. lxix. Then thy spruce citizen, wash’d artisan, And smug apprentice gulp their weekly air.

1864.  T. S. Williams & Simmonds, Engl. Commerc. Corresp., 239. 1s. 6d. pr. lb. for washed Merino free from burr.

  b.  Treated with water or other liquid so as to remove impurities or soluble matter, to separate heavier from lighter parts, etc.

c. 1575.  Perf. Bk. Kepinge Sparhawkes (1886), 9. This … will make more synues then all the scourings or washed meates that are used.

1600.  Surflet, Country Farm, V. xxi. 721. Washed bread is a meate very profitable for the health … bicause the washing of it doth wholie take away the heauines and clammines belonging vnto the earthie parts thereof.

1729.  Woodward, Fossils, I. I. 169. This last the People who gather it here, call Wash’d-Amber.

1785[?].  Imison, Sch. Arts (1796), II. 68. Adding about one part of washed whiting to three parts of carmine.

1810.  J. Bailey, Agric. Durham, 40, note. This is not clean or washed ore; but ore mixed with other substances that could not be separated in washing.

1849.  Pereira, Elem. Mat. Med. (ed. 3), I. 344. When thus purified, it is called washed sulphur (sulphur lotum vel depuratum).

1884.  F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 101. Washed or double washed Emery.

  † c.  Of coin: Sweated. Obs.

1711.  J. Tonson, Waller’s Poems, A 3. Clipt and washt money goes about, when the entire and weighty lies hoarded up.

  d.  Covered with a coating of precious metal.

1772.  Lond. Chron., 21–4 March, 288/3. It appeared there was but four shillings out of the guinea and half [of silver] good, the rest being only a washed metal.

1776.  Pennsylv. Even. Post, 25 May, 264/2. An olive coloured short fustian coat, with … silver washed buttons.

  e.  Of a water-color or monochrome drawing: Having the tints produced by color laid on in ‘washes.’

1770.  Exhib. R. Acad., 19. The Resurrection,… a washed drawing.

1784.  J. Barry, Lect. Art, iii. (1848), 133. Raphael’s washed drawing of the Calumny of Apelles.

1884.  Linton, Wood-Engraving, 50. A ‘washed drawing’ is one in which shadows, broad tints,… (indeed all masses of colour,) are washed in broadly with a brush in sepia or India ink.

  f.  Of stock, or sale of stock: see quot. and WASH v. 19 b.

1888–9.  New York Produce Exch. Rep., 265 (Cent.). Washed or fictitious sales are positively forbidden.

  † g.  fig. Of language: ? Refined, elegant. (? after L. lautus.) Obs.

1628.  Feltham, Resolves, I. xx. 67. I know, God hath chosen by weake things, to confound the wise: yet I see not but in all times, a washed Language hath much preuailed.

  † h.  Washed leather = WASH-LEATHER. Obs.

1694.  Motteux, Rabelais, IV. xxxii. Wash’d-Leather Boots [botines de cordouan].

  2.  Washed out. Of a fabric, dye, etc.: That has faded, or lost freshness, in the wash.

1837.  J. Morier, Abel Allnutt, I. xx. 306. The threadbare carpets, the washed-out curtains.

1851.  Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 342/1. Habited in a washed-out-blue French kind of pinafore.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 51. The shabby washed-out look of any colour which has not been dyed in this way.

  b.  fig. Lacking in color, animation, etc.

1850.  Smedley, F. Fairlegh, i. A complexion and general appearance only to be described by the term ‘washed out.’

1862.  Trollope, Orley F., xii. There was … none of that lanky, washed-out appearance which sorrow and trouble so often give to females.

1865.  W. Cory, Lett. & Jrnls. (1897), 166. They are a washed-out lot; but they laugh.

1885.  Huxley, in Life (1900), II. vi. 95. I am better … but curiously weak and washed out.