Hand-wash

noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Alternative form of hand wash (“washing by hand”). alt-of, alternative, countable

    "E.C.—Have you tried any remedies for the Goldfinch “stuck in the moult”? A very good one is to give a hand-wash in water considerably hotter than is used in the ordinary way, and not to afterward use cold water for rinsing purposes (it can be given without soap, if you like)."

  2. 2
    Alternative form of hand wash (“washing one’s hands”). alt-of, alternative, countable

    "Let no one eat from the same dish with any one else, let none overfeed himself and walk out after dinner without a hand-wash."

  3. 3
    Alternative form of handwash (“liquid soap”). alt-of, alternative, countable, uncountable

    "Towelettes and waterless hand-washes are great items to carry with you for preventing the spread of infectious germs."

Verb
  1. 1
    Alternative form of hand wash. alt-of, alternative, transitive
  2. 2
    wash or launder by hand instead of with a machine wordnet

Example

More examples

"E.C.—Have you tried any remedies for the Goldfinch “stuck in the moult”? A very good one is to give a hand-wash in water considerably hotter than is used in the ordinary way, and not to afterward use cold water for rinsing purposes (it can be given without soap, if you like)."

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