MEANING
1. To coat a surface with a usually lime-based white mixture.
2. To conceal or minimize faults or wrongdoing so that a person or institution appears blameless.
3. To defeat an opponent while conceding no score, or win every contest in a series.
Use it for
routine maintenance; bright surfaces; cosmetic renewalContrast a clean-looking coating with the condition underneath.
Words that belong together
- whitewash a wall
- whitewashed cottage
- freshly whitewashed
On the page
They whitewashed the courtyard walls before the wedding.
The cellar had been whitewashed so recently that the floor was still splattered.
Every spring, she whitewashes the low wall around the well.
Nearby words
Related words
Word forms
- Base
- whitewash / whitewashes
- Past tense
- whitewashed
- Past participle
- whitewashed
- Present participle
- whitewashing
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- whitewash / whitewashes
- Present continuous
- am/is/are whitewashing
- Present perfect
- have/has whitewashed
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been whitewashing
- Past
- whitewashed
- Past continuous
- was/were whitewashing
- Past perfect
- had whitewashed
- Past perfect continuous
- had been whitewashing
- Future
- will whitewash / whitewashes
- Future continuous
- will be whitewashing
- Future perfect
- will have whitewashed
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been whitewashing
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
Usage notes
Primary category: architecture. Literal building sense; figuratively conceal faults or wrongdoing. A fresh white surface does not imply sound construction. Verb: whitewash, whitewashes, whitewashed, whitewashed, whitewashing. Also mass noun: whitewash coating.
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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