| 释义 |
▪ I. whitewash, n.|ˈhwaɪtwɒʃ|
[prob. f. the vb.; cf. wash n. 4 d.]
†1. A cosmetic wash formerly used for imparting a light colour to the skin. Obs.
1689Several Disc. Vanities Modish Women 175 Her Bottles of White washes, or Cosmeticks. 1713Addison Guardian No. 116 ⁋1, I have heard a whole Sermon against a White-wash. 1764Gray Jemmy Twitcher 2 When sly Jemmy Twitcher had smugg'd up his face, With a lick of court whitewash,..A wooing he went.
2. A liquid composition of lime and water, or of whiting, size, and water, for whitening walls, ceilings, etc.
1697Vanbrugh Relapse v. iii, A little Glasing, Painting, Whitewash, and Playster, will make it [sc. the house] last thy time. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 161 ⁋4 The Plaisterer having..obliterated, by his White-wash, all the smoky Memorials which former Tenants had left upon the Cieling. 1776G. Semple Building in Water 81 A Peck of Roach⁓lime was slacked into White-wash. 1853Mrs. Gaskell Cranford xv, A wholesome smell of plaster and whitewash pervaded the apartment. 1858Hawthorne Fr. & It. Note-bks. (1872) I. 48 Before the whitewash of Cromwell's time had overlaid their marble pillars.
attrib. and Comb.1814Austin Papers (1924) I. 240, 1 White Wash Brush. 1848D. G. Rossetti Let. 20 Jan. (1965) I. 34 All my traps have been moved up into an attic, to make room for ladders, whitewash-pails, and such-like gear. 1881Century Mag. XXIII. 128/2 With whitewash brush in hand. 1887J. J. Hissey Holiday on Road 26 Art-ignoring, whitewash-loving churchwardens.
3. fig. Something that conceals faults or gives a fair appearance: cf. next, 2.
1865W. G. Palgrave Arabia II. 21 Such liberal semblance is merely a surface whitewash. 1883Fortn. Rev. Feb. 284 Washed white with the whitewash of diplomacy. 1898‘H. S. Merriman’ Rodens's Corner xi. 116 You know your uncle's reputation—the past one, I mean, not the whitewash.
4. An act of ‘whitewashing’, as of a bankrupt; also (colloq., orig. U.S.) a victory at baseball or other game in which the opponents fail to score; also, a victory in a series of games of which the opponents fail to win any.
1851J. Henderson Excurs. N.S. Wales I. 64 When once in a twelvemonth your agent goes smash, And bolts to New Zealand, or gets a whitewash. 1867N.Y. Clipper 31 Aug. 164/2 The first ‘whitewash’ of the [baseball] game was drawn by the Mutuals. 1874State Jrnl. (Lincoln, Nebraska) 26 June 4/1 The second match game of croquet took place yesterday morning, and resulted in a second whitewash for the latter named gentleman. 1884Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 13 Sept., The Bostons Give the Lawrence Team a White⁓wash Bath. 1920Westm. Gaz. 22 May 2/2 The Report is a fairly comprehensive whitewash of everybody concerned. 1961Times 4 May 4/6 Miss Truman who yesterday allowed Mrs. Cawthorn but 23 points in what the players of darts would term a ‘whitewash’. 1962Times 26 May 3/5 England nearly scored a whitewash over France..only the victory of G. Mourgue d'Algue standing between them and a 12–0 lead on the first day. 1977Evening Gaz. (Middlesbrough) 11 Jan. 14/1 Only one whitewash this week in the Friendly League. 1978Rugby World Apr. 4/1 Scotland must be bitterly disappointed that they have suffered their first whitewash for ten years.
†5. slang. (See quot. 1864.) Cf. whitewasher 3. Obs.
1864Hotten Slang Dict. 270 Whitewash, a glass of sherry as a finale, after drinking port and claret. 1879Trollope John Caldigate III. x. 142 ‘Take another glass of port, old boy.’ Bagwax did take another glass, finishing the bottle... ‘Take a drop of whitewash to wind up, and then we'll join the ladies.’
6. Comb.: whitewash gum, either of two eucalypts with powdery white bark, Eucalyptus apodophylla and E. terminalis, found in northern and central Australia.
[1926J. M. Black Flora S. Austral. iii. 420 E[ucalyptus] terminalis... Whitewashed gum; bloodwood. ]1934Bulletin (Sydney) 2 May 21/2 The whitewash gum..forms a striking feature of the landscape about Alice Springs. 1965Austral. Encycl. III. 406/2 Whitebark or ‘whitewash gum’..of Arnhem Land has perfectly smooth trunks covered with a white mealy ‘bloom’ that rubs off when touched.
▪ II. ˈwhitewash, v.
[f. white n. 18 + wash v. 9 b.]
1. a. trans. To plaster over (a wall, etc.) with a white composition; to cover or coat with whitewash. Also absol.
1591Percivall Sp. Dict., Enxalvegar, to white washe a house. 1707J. Stevens tr. Quevedo's Com. Wks. (1709) 329 She that White-washes her House, has a Mind to lett it. 1780Coxe Russ. Discov. 216 The houses are..plaistered and white-washed. 1818Scott Hrt. Midl. xliii, There were workmen..altering, repairing, scrubbing, painting, and white-washing. 1834L. Ritchie Wand. Seine 104 To whitewash a church is, in our eyes, a profanity. 1877C. Geikie Christ xxix. I. 485 The other [tomb]..whitewashed, to warn passers by not to defile themselves by too near an approach to the dead.
b. To apply a cosmetic ‘whitewash’ to.
1912C. N. & A. M. Williamson Guests of Hercules xvii, She whitewashed her face and had strange eyes.
c. intr. To become coated with a white efflorescence: see whitewashing vbl. n. 1 b.
1889C. T. Davis Bricks, Tiles, etc. (ed. 2) 90 The bricks made from them [sc. clays on the Hudson River] usually ‘whitewash’ or ‘saltpetre’ upon exposure to the weather.
2. fig.
a. trans. To give a fair appearance to; to free, or attempt to free, from blame or taint; to cover up, conceal, or gloss over the faults or blemishes of.
With various shades of meaning; now usually somewhat contemptuous, and implying a false appearance of good.
1762Colman Prose Sev. Occas. (1787) II. 34 Such as are blackened in the North Briton are..white-washed in the Auditor. 1764Hor. Walpole Mem. Reign Geo. III (1845) II. 35 A poet and an author will go as far in whitewashing a munificent tyrant. 1809Sir G. Jackson Diaries & Lett. (1873) I. 36 To be entirely exonerated from all blame, or—in the familiar language of the day—to be whitewashed. 1833Marryat Peter Simple xxxi, A quadroon and white make the mustee or one-eighth black, and the mustee and white the mustafina, or one-sixteenth black. After that, they are whitewashed, and considered as Europeans. a1845Barham Ingol. Leg. Ser. iii. House-Warm. x, Snore Hill (which we have since whitewash'd to Snow). 1856N. Brit. Rev. XXVI. 87 Mr. Froude..makes no attempt..to white⁓wash Henry: all that he does is, to remove as far as he can, the modern layers of ‘black-wash’. 1867Trollope Chron. Barset I. vii. 51 She would have given a finger to white⁓wash Mr. Crawley in the major's estimation. 1904Stubbs Lect. Eur. Hist. ii. viii. 229 Charles..had..whitewashed the cruel persecutions of Philip himself.
b. spec. To clear (a bankrupt or insolvent) by judicial process from liability for his debts. Also with the debts, etc. as obj., and intr. for pass. to go through the bankruptcy court.
1762Boston Evg. Post 2 Aug. (Thornton Amer. Gloss.). 1773Foote Bankrupt ii. (1776) 37 Pass'd a few necessary notes to get him number and value, white-wash'd him, and sent him home. 1819Sporting Mag. (N.S.) IV. 30 Two baronets' sons pleading to be white-washed, but remanded for fraud towards their creditors. 1832Egan's Bk. Sports 99/2 The unthinking dashing sparks whitewash their long accounts for twist, tape, and buckram. 1837Thackeray Ravenswing i, If I'm dunned, I whitewash. 1881E. J. Worboise Sissie xxvii, I am by no means sure that your father would not prefer to be made a bankrupt!..he would be ‘whitewashed’, in vulgar parlance.
3. In Baseball and other games: To beat (the opponents) so that they fail to score. Also loosely, to beat by a large margin. colloq. (orig. U.S.).
1867Chicago Republican 6 July 2/6 The Unions were whitewashed 3 times, and the Forest Citys 5 times. 1884Boston (Mass.) Jrnl. 2 Oct. 4 Buffalo Whitewashes Providence, and Philadelphia Detroit. 1972Korea Times 19 Nov. 1/5 Husky south Korean girls white-washed Thailand 106–17..in the second game. 1981R. Lewis Seek for Justice vi. 193 He took the first game [of darts]... He all but whitewashed Freddy in the second. |