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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
whitewash
I.noun
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ A Greenpeace spokesperson described the official report on nuclear waste disposal as a whitewash.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ At least it will be no whitewash this season.
▪ Doors and lintels were decorated with whitewash.
▪ If people don't like the message they can discuss it, but the report must not be seen as a whitewash.
▪ It is with Chaplin's personal life that Attenborough sloshes around the whitewash like a demented house-painter.
▪ The Internal Investigations Division, a self-policing unit set up by Wilson, had become known as a pall of whitewash.
▪ This is not the time, with a whitewash to be avoided.
II.verb
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Angry protesters whitewashed the offensive billboards.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A whitewashed verandah contained bags of wheat and well-oiled harnesses.
▪ Fields covered in snow would swallow up whitewashed farmhouses were it not for their black window frames.
▪ Just past one bad curve, a small shrine has been erected, La Virgen surrounded by three concrete crosses recently whitewashed.
▪ My first day on the works I was sent off to whitewash a shed all by myself.
▪ Overlooking the walls were two whitewashed stone bastions.
▪ Remember how they whitewashed the pigsties before they'd let their men sleep there?
▪ Shop houses and ancestral halls were jumbled side by side with whitewashed cottages and churches.
▪ The only hint of what goes on inside are the vultures that perch on its whitewashed outer walls.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Whitewash

Whitewash \White"wash`\, n.

  1. Any wash or liquid composition for whitening something, as a wash for making the skin fair.
    --Addison.

  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).

Whitewash

Whitewash \White"wash`\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Whitewashed; p. pr. & vb. n. 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).

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
whitewash

1590s, "to wash a building surface with white liquid," from white (adj.) + wash (v.). Figurative sense of "to cover up, conceal, give a false appearance of cleanness to" is attested from 1762. Related: Whitewashed; whitewashing. The noun is recorded from 1690s; in the figurative sense from 185

  1. The earlier verb was whitelime (c.1300).

Wiktionary
whitewash

n. 1 A lime and water mixture for painting walls and fences bright white. 2 (context sports English) A complete victory or series of victories without suffering any losses; a clean sweep. 3 (context obsolete English) Any liquid composition for whitening something, such as a wash for making the skin fair. vb. 1 To paint over with a lime and water mixture so as to brighten up a wall or fence. 2 (context idiomatic English) To cover over errors or bad actions. 3 (context dated transitive English) To repay the financial debts of (another person). 4 (context baseball slang dated late 19th century archaic English) To prevent a team from scoring any runs. 5 (context US UK slang English) In various games, to defeat (an opponent) so that they fail to score, or to reach a certain point in the game; to skunk. 6 (context acting English) To choose white film or television actors to portray characters that were Asian, African, or other races. 7 (context pejorative English) To make over (an Asian, African, or person of another race, especially a woman) to look Caucasian.

WordNet
whitewash
  1. n. a defeat in which the losing person or team fails to score

  2. wash consisting of lime and size in water; used for whitening walls and other surfaces

  3. a specious or deceptive clearing that attempts to gloss over failings and defects

  4. v. cover up a misdemeanor, fault, or error; "Let's not whitewash the crimes of Stalin"; "She tried to gloss over her mistakes" [syn: gloss over, sleek over, hush up]

  5. cover with whitewash; "whitewash walls"

  6. exonerate by means of a perfunctory investigation or through biased presentation of data

Wikipedia
Whitewash

Whitewash, or calcimine, kalsomine, calsomine, or lime paint is a low-cost type of paint made from slaked lime ( calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)) and chalk ( calcium carbonate, (CaCO), sometimes known as "whiting". Various other additives are also used.

Whitewash (1994 film)

Whitewash is a 1994 television special and animated short film that was based on a true story. The program was produced and directed by Michael Sporn with a screenplay by Ntozake Shange. Ruby Dee and Linda Lavin provide voices for the animated characters.

Whitewash (sport)

A whitewash is an informal term in sport describing a game or series in which the losing person or team fails to score.

A whitewash may be in a single game where the loser fails to score any points or goals, or in a series where the loser fails to win a game. In North America the two are differentiated, with the former called a shutout and the latter a sweep.

It is not typically used for games such as football where a failure to score is very common; the winning team's goalkeeper is said to keep a clean sheet if they do not concede a goal.

Whitewash (film)

Whitewash is a Canadian drama film, released in 2013. Directed by Emanuel Hoss-Desmarais and written by Hoss-Desmarais and Marc Tulin, the film stars Thomas Haden Church as Bruce, an unemployed snowplow driver in rural Quebec who develops a pseudo-friendship with Paul, a man who hides his deep disturbances behind a facade of warm demeanor which is slowly revealed through a series of sporadic flashbacks. The film's cast also includes Anie Pascale, Marc Labrèche, Isabelle Nélisse, Geneviève Laroche, Emanuel Hoss-Desmarais and Vincent Hoss-Desmarais.

Whitewash (disambiguation)

Whitewash is a paint like covering of hydrated lime or a cheap white paint.

Whitewash may also refer to:

  • Whitewash (sport), a sports game or series in which the losing person or team fails to score
  • Whitewash (censorship), a term for censorship
  • Whitewashing in film, the practice of casting (or replacing) minority characters with white actors
  • Whitewash (TV special), a 1994 HBO Family Channel
  • Whitewash (film), a 2013 Canadian film
  • Whitewash Jones, a racist caricature from the 1940s comic book Young Allies
  • Whitewash procedure, a legal procedure in shareholder law
  • "Whitewash", a song by Buckethead
  • "White Washed", a song by August Burns Red

Usage examples of "whitewash".

And in still another panic of fright we have this same tough civilisation saving its honour by condemning an innocent man to multiform death, and hugging and whitewashing the guilty one.

Doctor Romanelli shivered slightly in spite of the heat and turned to the north, squinting at the bristling, tangled maze of whitewashed walls and brightly colored enamelled domes that was the new section of the city, which had grown up like lush riverside vegetation around the highway, called the Mustee, that connected the Citadel with the ancient Harbor of Boolak.

The windows were small, to be sure, and the pitch rather low, but the whitewashed walls were pannelled, and I had some hopes of the ceiling.

They stopped at a small whitewashed hacienda-type coffee house, and queued again, but at least the coffee was good, though they had to share their table with another couple, who hailed from Middlesex.

He buys an old rackety house at the Haarlemmer Houttuinen, fixes it up a little and whitewashes all its walls.

An hour after I received this whitewash I got a visit from a Forged agent, a Salmagundi called Bob Clovitz, who told me in no uncertain terms that the Securitat was watching me closely and would be much obliged if I said nothing, either about Metropolis itself, or about any suspicions I might be harbouring concerning Unity activities in other Sidebars, particularly Sankhara.

This time Craig did not have to be warned of the hidden turn-off, and he swung onto the track that led past the cemetery, down the avenues of spathodea trees to the whitewashed staff cottages of Khami Mission.

It was only when she went to look at them that she discovered that behind the rosebushes the whitewash had been spattered with blood.

The radiant colours were unblurred by their long sojourn under the whitewash of an earlier age and the painting really stood out remarkably.

On many of the outer walls of upper stories the whitewash has been stopped within a foot of the coping, the unwhitened portion of the walls at the top having the effect of a frieze.

The palace had a feeling of great age but was well-kept, with whitewashed walls and handsome tile floors.

His expression grave, he dismounted to confer with the three generals who accompanied him into the whitewashed wooden fort.

He blinked them away and tilted his head back to look up at the castle keep: five splendid stories of whitewashed walls and multiple gleaming tiled roofs and gables that soared against the blue sky.

Once on the other side, he followed a circuitous stone passage that ran between parallel stone walls topped with continuous lines of whitewashed guardhouses.

Still more officials lingered outside the palace, a low, vast building with whitewashed plaster walls, dark wooden doors, beams, and window lattices, and a many-gabled roof of gleaming grey tile.