the world > physical sensation > cleanness and dirtiness > cleaning > washing > washing clothes and textile articles > wash clothes [verb (transitive)] > by steeping or boiling (2)
transitive. To steep or boil in an alkaline lye as a first process in buck-washing, or bleaching.
transitive. To put (a quantity of clothes, cloth, or yarn) through the process of washing or bleaching with lye. In expressions with buck (buck, n.3…