Wear vs Wash - What's the difference?
wear | wash |
To guard; watch; keep watch, especially from entry or invasion.
To defend; protect.
To ward off; prevent from approaching or entering; drive off; repel.
To conduct or guide with care or caution, as into a fold or place of safety.
To carry or have equipped on or about one's body, as an item of clothing, equipment, decoration, etc.
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*:It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street. He wore shepherd's plaid trousers and the swallow-tail coat of the day, with a figured muslin cravat wound about his wide-spread collar.
*{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
, chapter=5 To have or carry on one's person habitually, consistently; or, to maintain in a particular fashion or manner.
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*, chapter=10
, title= To bear or display in one's aspect or appearance.
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To overcome one's reluctance and endure a (previously specified) situation.
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To eat away at, erode, diminish, or consume gradually; to cause a gradual deterioration in; to produce (some change) through attrition, exposure, or constant use.
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(lb) To undergo gradual deterioration; become impaired; be reduced or consumed gradually due to any continued process, activity, or use.
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*Sir (Walter Scott) (1771-1832)
*:His stock of money began to wear very low.
* (1804-1881)
*:The familywore out in the earlier part of the century.
To exhaust, fatigue, expend, or weary. His neverending criticism has finally worn' my patience. Toil and care soon '''wear''' the spirit. Our physical advantage allowed us to ' wear the other team out
(lb) To last or remain durable under hard use or over time; to retain usefulness, value, or desirable qualities under any continued strain or long period of time; sometimes said of a person, regarding the quality of being easy or difficult to tolerate.
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(in the phrase "wearing on (someone) ") To cause annoyance, irritation, fatigue, or weariness near the point of an exhaustion of patience.
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To pass slowly, gradually or tediously.
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*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
*:Away, I say; time wears .
*(John Milton) (1608-1674)
*:Thus wore out night.
(lb) To bring (a sailing vessel) onto the other tack by bringing the wind around the stern (as opposed to tacking when the wind is brought around the bow); to come round on another tack by turning away from the wind. Also written "ware". Past: weared, or wore/worn.
(uncountable) (in combination ) clothing
(uncountable) damage to the appearance and/or strength of an item caused by use over time
* 1895 , H. G. Wells, The Time Machine Chapter X
(uncountable) fashion
* Shakespeare
To clean with water.
To move or erode by the force of water in motion.
(mining) To separate valuable material (such as gold) from worthless material by the action of flowing water.
To clean oneself with water.
To cover with water or any liquid; to wet; to fall on and moisten.
* Milton
* Longfellow
To be eroded or carried away by the action of water.
(figuratively) To be cogent, convincing; to withstand critique.
* 2012 , (The Economist), Oct 13th 2012 issue,
To bear without injury the operation of being washed.
To be wasted or worn away by the action of water, as by a running or overflowing stream, or by the dashing of the sea; said of road, a beach, etc.
To cover with a thin or watery coat of colour; to tint lightly and thinly.
To overlay with a thin coat of metal.
The process or an instance of washing or being washed by water or other liquid.
A liquid used for washing.
The quantity of clothes washed at a time.
(arts) A smooth and translucent .
The sound of breaking of the seas, e.g., on the shore.
The wake of a moving ship.
The turbulence left in the air by a moving airplane.
A lotion or other liquid with medicinal or hygienic properties.
Ground washed away to the sea or a river.
* Mortimer
A piece of ground washed by the action of water, or sometimes covered and sometimes left dry; the shallowest part of a river, or arm of the sea; also, a bog; a marsh.
* Shakespeare
A shallow body of water.
In arid and semi-arid regions, the normally dry bed of an intermittent or ephemeral stream; an arroyo or wadi.
* 1997 , Stanley Desmond Smith, et al. Physiological Ecology of North American Desert Plants, Nature
* 1999 , Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert
* 2005 , Le Hayes, Pilgrims in the Desert: The Early History of the East Mojave Desert
An situation in which losses and gains or advantages and disadvantages are equivalent; a situation in which there is no net change.
* 2003 , David Brenner, I Think There's a Terrorist in My Soup , page 100:
Waste liquid, the refuse of food, the collection from washed dishes, etc., from a kitchen, often used as food for pigs; pigwash.
In distilling, the fermented wort before the spirit is extracted.
A mixture of dunder, molasses, water, and scummings, used in the West Indies for distillation.
A thin coat of metal laid on anything for beauty or preservation.
(nautical) The blade of an oar.
The backward current or disturbed water caused by the action of oars, or of a steamer's screw or paddles, etc.
Ten strikes, or bushels, of oysters.
As a proper noun wear
is a river in the county of tyne and wear in north east england the city of sunderland is found upon its banks.As an initialism wash is
.wear
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) weren, werien, from (etyl) .Alternative forms
* (l), (l) (Scotland)Verb
- to wear the wolf from the sheep
Etymology 2
From (etyl) weren, werien, from (etyl) , (etyl) gwisgo, (etyl) waš- .Verb
citation, passage=‘It's rather like a beautiful Inverness cloak one has inherited. Much too good to hide away, so one wears it instead of an overcoat and pretends it's an amusing new fashion.’}}
The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=It was a joy to snatch some brief respite, and find himself in the rectory drawing–room. Listening here was as pleasant as talking; just to watch was pleasant. The young priests who lived here wore cassocks and birettas; their faces were fine and mild, yet really strong, like the rector's face; and in their intercourse with him and his wife they seemed to be brothers.}}
Derived terms
* outworn * wear away * wear down * wear off * wear out, worn out, worn-out * wear thin * wear something on one's sleeve, wear one's heart on one's sleeve * wear rose-colored glasses * wearable * wearer * worse for wearSee also
* (l) *Noun
(-)- footwear'''; outdoor '''wear'''; maternity '''wear
- Now, I still think that for this box of matches to have escaped the wear of time for immemorial years was a strange, and for me, a most fortunate thing.
- Motley's the only wear .
Quotations
* (English Citations of "wear")wash
English
Verb
- Heavy rains wash a road or an embankment.
- Waves wash the shore.
- fresh-blown roses washed with dew
- [the landscape] washed with a cold, grey mist
The Jordan and its king: As beleaguered as ever
- The king is running out of ideas as well as cash. His favourite shock-absorbing tactic—to blame his governments and sack his prime ministers—hardly washes .
- steel washed with silver
Usage notes
In older works and possibly still in some dialects, wesh'' and ''woosh'' may be found as past tense forms. ''Washen may be found as a past participle.Derived terms
* dishwasher * jetwash * wash away * wash down * washed up / all washed up * washer * wash off * wash one's hands of * wash out * wash over * wash upNoun
(washes)- I'm going to have a quick wash before coming to bed.
- My jacket needs a wash .
- There's a lot in that wash : maybe you should split it into two piles.
- I could hear the wash of the wave.
- The ship left a big wash
- Sail away from the wash to avoid rocking the boat.
- mouth wash
- hand wash
- The wash of pastures, fields, commons, and roads, where rain water hath a long time settled.
- These Lincoln washes have devoured them.
- In some desert-wash systems (which have been termed “xero-riparian”)
- ... though the wash may carry surface water for only a few hours a year.
- Rock Spring Wash' continues a short distance then joins Watson '''Wash'''. Water from Rock Spring comes out of the boulder strewn ' wash and disappears into the sand
- I knew that for every vote I cast for, say, the Republicans, some kid at a polling place nearby was casting his votes for the Democrats, so it was probably a wash or close to it.
- (Shakespeare)
