单词 | whitewashing |
释义 | whitewashingn. 1. The action or process of coating a wall or other surface with whitewash; an instance of this.In quot. 1650 in figurative context. ΘΚΠ society > occupation and work > industry > decorating and painting > [noun] > painting > painting with whitewash white-liming1423 whiting1431 whitewashing1650 1650 E. Marbury Comm. Habakkuk (new ed.) sig. Eee4 The Church hath the honour of curious and costly work, all the rest of the works of God are not worth the cost that he bestowed in the white washing of this work. 1663 B. Gerbier Counsel to Builders 80 White-washing and stopping, at three pence a yard. 1732 Philos. Trans. 1731–2 (Royal Soc.) 37 234 They use Glue made very thin..instead of Size, for White-washing. 1787 Amer. Museum Jan. 55/2 To have her white-washings, her scourings, and scrubbings, made the subject of ridicule—it is more than patience can put up with. 1836 C. Dickens Sketches by Boz 1st Ser. I. 147 As clean..as indefatigable white-washing, and hearth-stoning, and scrubbing and rubbing could make them. 1866 Rural Amer. (Utica, N.Y.) 15 Mar. 85/2 An occasional white-washing should be given to the ceilings and partitions. 1907 W. De Morgan Alice-for-Short xxxiii. 338 One cannot interrupt work and have things shifted for whitewashings and cleanings. 2004 A. E. McGrath Twilight of Atheism (2006) viii. 209 The smashing of religious statues in churches and the whitewashing of their walls to destroy imagery. 2. a. An act or instance of clearing a person of liability for debts, esp. by judicial declaration of bankruptcy. Now rare. ΘΚΠ society > trade and finance > management of money > insolvency > [noun] > bankruptcy > appointee administering property of bankrupt > clearing of debt liability whitewashing1762 whitewash1834 1762 St. James's Chron. 2 Mar. By some, who have already been tormented by them [sc. bailiffs], whitewashing has been found to be an excellent Remedy. 1794 Parl. Reg. 1781–96 XXXIX. 251 Many persons had thrown themselves into prison under the idea of being liberated by an act of this kind, and of having the operation of white-washing performed upon them. 1823 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 14 101 I have been white-washed by the Insolvent Court.., let all my sins go with that white-washing. 1842 Law Mag. 27 260 They themselves are compelled to..pass through the vexatious and degrading operation of whitewashing in the Insolvent Court. 1902 Accountant 4 Oct. 1003/2 The contumelious epithet of ‘whitewashing’ is often applied to this process [sc. bankruptcy proceedings]. b. The action of concealing faults or errors, or of providing an appearance of honesty, respectability, rectitude, etc. Cf. whitewash v. 3a. ΘΚΠ society > morality > duty or obligation > moral or legal constraint > immunity or exemption from liability > justification > [noun] > exculpation skering1297 sunyinga1400 discharge1449 cleansingc1568 disaggravating1598 clearing1604 assoilment1611 washing1612 disblaminga1641 disculpation1649 acclearmenta1670 exculpationa1715 whitewashing1768 expurgation1828 1768 Crit. Rev. Dec. 463 All the white-washing Mr. Lewis bestows upon Henry never can clear him from the charge of being..a barbarous and unrelenting tyrant. 1801 E. Wright Marvellous Pleasant Love-story II. 320 To set at defiance the wholesome restrictions imposed upon society, by countenancing Mrs. Smeddy's white-washing [by marriage after an immoral connexion]. 1855 C. Kingsley Sir W. Raleigh in Misc. (1860) I. 7 I think the book an altogether foolish..book,..having but one object, the whitewashing of James. 1921 M. Cram in B. Williams O. Henry Prize Stories of 1921 (1922) 143 During those days of posthumous whitewashing he read the papers with a certain contemptuous eagerness. 2008 N.Y. Mag. 29 Sept. 84/1 (headline) Miracle at St. Anna is Spike Lee's bloody, blunt attack on the whitewashing of WWII. 3. colloquial (originally Baseball). The action or an act of beating an opponent in such a way that he or she fails to score, or loses by a very large margin; a whitewash (whitewash n. 5).Earliest in attributive use. ΚΠ 1870 N.Y. Times 14 June 8/1 In the second innings this ‘whitewashing’ process was repeated..and it was not until the third innings that a run was scored. 1902 Gaz. & Courier (Greenfield, Mass.) 30 Aug. 5/1 The Fitchburg aggregation suffered a whitewashing at the hands of the local baseball team on Shattuck park, Saturday. 1955 Princeton Alumni Weekly 22 Apr. 19/3 Fish and Campbell were the standouts in the whitewashing of Penn at Philadelphia. 1992 J. M. Carroll Fritz Pollard (1998) ix. 147 Akron got off to a strong start in the fall campaign, with 14–0 and 41–0 whitewashings of the Columbus Panhandles and the Cincinnati Celts. 2014 Courier Mail (Austral.) (Nexis) 16 June (Sport section) 53 The Cats..yesterday returned to their devastating best in a whitewashing of the Saints. 4. Efflorescence of salts on the surface of bricks, resulting in a white coating. Cf. whitewash v. 5. Now rare. ΘΚΠ the world > physical sensation > cleanness and dirtiness > dirtiness > pollution or defilement > [noun] > specific impurities > incrustation > on brick saltpetre rot1848 whitewashing1884 saltpetreing1885 1884 Amer. Architect & Building News 14 June 286/2 For the efflorescence on outside brickwork, or ‘whitewashing’, as it is commonly called,..crude petroleum is the very best preventive. 1889 C. T. Davis Pract. Treat. Manuf. Bricks (ed. 2) 97 In damp positions..brick walls are often covered with a crystalline substance of a white fleecy appearance, suggestive of hoar-frost,..which..absorbs the humidity of the atmosphere..and carries off the paint in large patches, and the process is called by the English workmen ‘saltpetring’, and sometimes in this country it is termed ‘whitewashing’. 1922 Brick & Clay Rec. 18 Apr. 606/1 The Germans formerly used both carbonate and chloride..to take care of whatever whitewashing salts remain. Compounds General attributive. ΚΠ 1773 G. Washington Invoice 26 July in Papers (1994) IX. 289 6 Ditto [sc. plaisterer's] white washing Brushes. 1787 Amer. Museum Jan. 51/2 His hope was, that when the white-washing frenzy seized the females of his family, they might repair to this apartment, and scrub and scour, and smear to their heart's content. 1875 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. White-washing-apparatus..for whitening walls and ceilings. 1890 Daily News 28 Feb. 7/2 Court of Bankruptcy.—Feb. 27...We allege that no assets have been recovered, and that this is a whitewashing case. 1913 Metall. & Chem. Engin. Sept. 518/1 This whitewashing process accounts for the lime and magnesia in the furnace slag. 1957 Lubbock (Texas) Morning Avalanche 18 June ii. 6/2 Von has struck out eight and walked none in his eight white-washing innings. 2007 M. J. Cain Tangled Web 50 The coroner's second hearing developed into a whitewashing session and a verdict of justifiable homicide was returned. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2015; most recently modified version published online December 2021). whitewashingadj. That whitewashes (in various senses). ΘΚΠ the world > matter > colour > named colours > white or whiteness > whitening > [adjective] > whitening with specific substance whitewashing1837 1837 Brit. Mag. 1 Dec. 620 In the predicament of some of the figures in our churches, where, between the Iconoclast rebel, and the whitewashing churchwarden, the features can hardly be traced. 1847 J. Hicklin Illustr. Hand-bk. North Wales 8 The church is ancient, with a plain uninteresting tower, which the white-washing hand of modern ‘improvement’ has deprived of all pretensions to the picturesque. 1873 Lit. World 1 Mar. 162/2 His chapter on Opium-smoking is very interesting, though, to employ a modern phrase, it is rather ‘whitewashing’. 1910 G. Myers Hist. Great Amer. Fortunes III. xiv. 369 The report of this committee, while of a whitewashing and partisan nature, indicated an appalling state of corruption. 2011 A. Feinstein Shadow World (2012) vii. 149 The £1.7m spent on the Woolf report was a wasted expense on what was a whitewashing PR exercise. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2015; most recently modified version published online December 2021). < n.1650adj.1837 |
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