noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A washerwoman or washerman. obsolete
2. 2
   A trough used by miners to receive powdered ore from the box where it is beaten, or for carrying water to the stamps, or other apparatus for comminuting (sorting) the ore.
3. 3
   A trough or channel carrying water to the wheel of a watermill.
4. 4
   A gutter (for rainwater).

Verb

1. 1
   To wash; to wash, and to smooth with a flatiron or mangle; to wash and iron.
2. 2
   convert illegally obtained funds into legal ones wordnet
3. 3
   To lave; to wet. obsolete

   "Oft did she heave her napkin to her eyne, / Which on it had conceited characters, / Laundering the silken figures in the brine"

4. 4
   cleanse with a cleaning agent, such as soap, and water wordnet
5. 5
   To disguise the source of (ill-gotten wealth) by various means.

Show 1 more definition

6. 6
   To obtain a pointer to an object created in storage occupied by an existing object of the same type, even if it has const or reference members. transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms

washbaptizebathbathecleancleanse

Antonyms

All antonyms

blackwash

Example

More examples

"The criminal attempted to launder money."

Etymology

Contracted from Middle English lavender, from Old French lavandiere, from Late Latin lavandera, from Latin lavō (“I wash”).

Related phrases

money laundering

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