whitewashern.
/ˈwʌɪtwɒʃə/, U.S. /ˈ(h)waɪtˌwɔʃər/, /ˈ(h)waɪtˌwɑʃər/ 1. A person who applies whitewash to walls, buildings, etc. In quot. 1752 used contemptuously for a clumsy artist.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to type of work > manual or industrial worker > decorator > [noun] > whitewasher
pargeter1538
white-limer1611
whitewasher1729
calciminer1885
1729 tr. P. Gilles Antiq. Constantinople iii. ix. 213 From Asia and Pontus he had a Thousand Builders, and two hundred White-washers.
1733 S.-Carolina Gaz. 24 Feb. He's a Bricklayer, Plaisterer and White-washer.
1752 S. Foote Taste i. 5 Thou Dauber, thou execrable White-washer.
1813 J. N. Brewer Beauties Eng. & Wales XII. ii. 515 Even this sordid memorial is now concealed by the merciless operations of the whitewasher's brush.
a1865 E. C. Gaskell Wives & Daughters (1866) I. xxv. 278 The ladders of whitewashers and painters were sadly in the way of the ladies.
1940 H. L. Mencken Happy Days iv. 69 Laundresses, whitewashers and other visiting members of the domestic faculty.
1997 L. Bergreen Louis Armstrong (1998) v. 125 He concluded this type of work was not for him, and moved on to a job as a whitewasher.
2. A person who or thing which conceals faults or errors, or provides an appearance of honesty, respectability, rectitude, etc. In quot. 1804: a solicitor engaged in bankruptcy proceedings to clear a client from liability for his or her debts (cf. whitewash v. 3b).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > conformity with what is known, truth > deceit, deception, trickery > dissimulation, pretence > semblance, outward show > [noun] > one who creates fair or false appearance
cloaker1557
whitewasher1804
glosser1828
society > morality > duty or obligation > moral or legal constraint > immunity or exemption from liability > justification > [noun] > exculpation > one who
compurgator1609
whitewasher1862
1804 Times 15 Dec. Who was your white-washer the second time?
1820 M. Wilmot Let. 27 Sept. (1935) 84 On recollection his cause is too good to be successful in such clever hands as her [sc. Queen Caroline's] whitewashers.
1862 M. Napier Mem. Life Visct. Dundee II. 228 A devoted and skilful white-washer of Scotch fanatics.
1889 M. Caird Wing of Azrael xxxi. 231 Death is undoubtedly the great whitewasher.
1926 Amer. Mercury July 381/2 He is no evangelical whitewasher.
1968 E. Cleaver Soul on Ice ii. i. 70 Schoolteachers and college professors are seen as a clique of brainwashers and whitewashers.
2006 C. Floyd Empire Burlesque iii. 60 The whitewashers of war crimes in the Bush Regime are trying to pervert the facts of history.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > drink > intoxicating liquor > [noun] > a drink of > taken after dinner
whitewasher1870
1870 J. Grant Lady Wedderburn's Wish I. x. 115 Come—one glass of Madeira, as a ‘white-washer’, and then I ring for coffee.
1881 J. Grant Cameronians I. iii. 37 The general..insisted..on one more glass of dry sherry, ‘just as a white-washer’.
1897 ‘R. Boldrewood’ My Run Home xxii. 200 ‘Take a white-washer of this rather curious sherry, and we'll join the ladies,’ said Blake.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2015; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1729