What is "dry wash"

Wash \Wash\, n.

1. The act of washing; an ablution; a cleansing, wetting, or dashing with water; hence, a quantity, as of clothes, washed at once.

2. A piece of ground washed by the action of a sea or river, or sometimes covered and sometimes left dry; the shallowest part of a river, or arm of the sea; also, a bog; a marsh; a fen; as, the washes in Lincolnshire. ``The Wash of Edmonton so gay.''
   --Cowper.

   These Lincoln washes have devoured them.
   --Shak.

3. Substances collected and deposited by the action of water; as, the wash of a sewer, of a river, etc.

   The wash of pastures, fields, commons, and roads, where rain water hath a long time settled.
   --Mortimer.

4. Waste liquid, the refuse of food, the collection from washed dishes, etc., from a kitchen, often used as food for pigs.
   --Shak.

5. (Distilling)

   1. The fermented wort before the spirit is extracted.

   2. A mixture of dunder, molasses, water, and scummings, used in the West Indies for distillation.
      --B. Edwards.

6. That with which anything is washed, or wetted, smeared, tinted, etc., upon the surface. Specifically:

   1. A liquid cosmetic for the complexion.

   2. A liquid dentifrice.

   3. A liquid preparation for the hair; as, a hair wash.

   4. A medical preparation in a liquid form for external application; a lotion.

   5. (Painting) A thin coat of color, esp. water color. (j) A thin coat of metal applied in a liquid form on any object, for beauty or preservation; -- called also washing.

7. (Naut.)

   1. The blade of an oar, or the thin part which enters the water.

   2. The backward current or disturbed water caused by the action of oars, or of a steamer's screw or paddles, etc.

8. The flow, swash, or breaking of a body of water, as a wave; also, the sound of it.

9. Ten strikes, or bushels, of oysters. [Prov. Eng.]

10. [Western U. S.] (Geol.)

    1. Gravel and other rock d['e]bris transported and deposited by running water; coarse alluvium.

    2. An alluvial cone formed by a stream at the base of a mountain.

11. The dry bed of an intermittent stream, sometimes at the bottom of a ca[~n]on; as, the Amargosa wash, Diamond wash; -- called also dry wash. [Western U. S.]

12. (Arch.) The upper surface of a member or material when given a slope to shed water. Hence, a structure or receptacle shaped so as to receive and carry off water, as a carriage wash in a stable.

13. an action or situation in which the gains and losses are equal, or closely compensate each other.

14. (Aeronautics) the disturbance of the air left behind in the wake of a moving airplane or one of its parts. Wash ball, a ball of soap to be used in washing the hands or face. --Swift. Wash barrel (Fisheries), a barrel nearly full of split mackerel, loosely put in, and afterward filled with salt water in order to soak the blood from the fish before salting. Wash bottle. (Chem.)

    1. A bottle partially filled with some liquid through which gases are passed for the purpose of purifying them, especially by removing soluble constituents.

    2. A washing bottle. See under Washing.

       Wash gilding. See Water gilding.

       Wash leather, split sheepskin dressed with oil, in imitation of chamois, or shammy, and used for dusting, cleaning glass or plate, etc.; also, alumed, or buff, leather for soldiers' belts.

n. the dry bed of an intermittent stream (as at the bottom of a canyon) [syn: wash]

Dry wash may refer to:

• Waterless car wash, a technique used to wash a vehicle without the use of water
• Dry cleaning, any cleaning process for clothing and textiles using an organic solvent rather than water
• Arroyo (creek), wadi, or similar dry waterways