noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Water that dishes and cooking utensils have been washed in. uncountable, usually

   "The dishwater drained away slowly."

2. 2
   water in which dishes and cooking utensils are washed wordnet
3. 3
   Anything dull and lacking interest or flavour. broadly, uncountable, usually

   "This season's offerings are nothing but dishwater."

Synonyms

All synonyms

bilgebilgewaterbonescambric teacarrionchaff

Example

More examples

"I dumped the dishwater on the flowers so it wasn't wasted."

Etymology

From dish + water.

Related phrases

dishwater blonddishwater blondedull as dishwater

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.