Sportswash
noun, verb
noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 An incidence of sportswashing
Verb
- 1 To use sporting events to improve a polity's reputation, especially to distract from human rights abuses.
"Asked how he would feel if the event was part of a move to "sportswash" over wrongdoing, he said: "If that was the case I would definitely have to say I would be bothered – but my only focus is the boxing.""
Example
More examples"Asked how he would feel if the event was part of a move to "sportswash" over wrongdoing, he said: "If that was the case I would definitely have to say I would be bothered – but my only focus is the boxing.""
Etymology
From sports + -wash.
More for "sportswash"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.