Emily Dickinson Lexicon

WART'Y, a.

1. Having warts; full of warts; overgrown with warts; as, a warty leaf. – Lee.
2. Of the nature of warts.

WAR'-WAST-ED, a.

Wasted by war. – Coleridge.

WAR'WHOOP, n.

The Indian yell in war. [See War.]

WAR'-WORN, a. [war and worn.]

Worn with military service; as, a war-worn coat; a war-worn soldier.

WA'RY, a. [Sax. wær; Ice. var. See Ware and Warn.]

Cautious of danger; carefully watching and guarding against deception, artifices and dangers; scrupulous; timorously prudent. Old men are usually more wary than the young. It is incumbent on a general war to be always wary.

WAS, v. [s as z;]

The past tense of the substantive verb; Sax. wesan; Goth. wesan; L. esse, for vesse, to be, to exist, whence Eng. is, in the present tense, and was, in the past; as, I was; he was.

WASH, n.

1. Alluvial matter; substances collected and deposited by water; as, the wash of a river.
2. A bog; a marsh; a fen. Neptune's salt wash. – Shak.
3. A cosmetic; as, a wash for the face, to help the complexion.
4. A lotion; a medical liquid preparation for external application.
5. A superficial stain or color. – Collier.
6. Waste liquor of a kitchen for hogs.
7. The act of washing the clothes of a family; or the whole quantity washed at once. There is a great wash, or a small wash.
8. With distillers, the fermentable liquor made by dissolving the proper subject for fermentation and distillation in common water. In the distillery of malt, the wash is made by mixing the water but, with the malt ground into meal. – Cyc.
9. The shallow part of a river, or arm of the sea; as, the washes in Lincolnshire. – Cyc.
10. The blade of an oar; the thin part which enters the water, and by whose impulse the boat is moved.
11. The color laid on a picture to vary its tints.
12. A substance laid on boards or other work for beauty or preservation.
13. A thin coat of metal.
14. In the West Indies, a mixture of dunder, melasses, water, and scummings, for distillation. – Edwards's West Indies.

WASH, v.i.

1. To perform the act of ablution. Wash in Jordan seven times. 2 Kings v.
2. To perform the business of cleansing clothes in water. She can wash and scour. – Shak. To wash off, in calico-printing, to soak and rinse printed calicoes, to dissolve and remove the gum and paste. – Cyc.

WASH, v.t. [Sax. wæscan; G. waschen; D. wasschen.]

1. To cleanse by ablution, or by rubbing in water; as, to wash the hands or the body; to wash garments.
2. To wet; to fall on and moisten; as, the rain washes the flowers or plants.
3. To overflow. The tides wash the meadows.
4. To overflow or dash against; to cover with water; as, the waves wash the strand or shore; the sea washes the rocks on the shore or beach.
5. To scrub in water; as, to wash a deck or a floor.
6. To separate extraneous matter from; as, to wash ore; to wash grain.
7. In painting, to lay a color over any work with a pencil, to give it the proper tints, and make it appear more natural. Thus work, is washed with a pale red to imitate brick, &c.
8. To rub over with some liquid substance; as, to wash trees for removing insects or diseases.
9. To squeeze and cleanse in water; as, to wash wool. So sheep are said to be washed, when they are immersed in water and their wool squeezed, by which means it is cleansed.
10. To cleanse by a current of water; as, showers wash the streets.
11. To overlay with a thin coat of metal; as, steel washed with silver.
12. To purify from the pollution of sin. But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified. 1 Cor. vi. To wash a ship, to bring all her guns to one side to make her heel, and then to wash and scrape her side.

WASH'-BALL, n. [wash and ball.]

A ball of soap, to be used in washing the hands or face.

WASH'-BOARD, n. [wash and board.]

1. A broad, thin plank, fixed occasionally on the top of a boat or other small vessel's aide, to prevent the sea from breaking over; also, a piece of plank on the sill of a lower deck port, for the same purpose. – Mar. Dict.
2. A board in a room, next to the floor.

WASH'ED, pp.

1. Cleansed in water; purified.
2. Overflowed; dashed against with water.
3. Covered over with a thin coat, as of metal.

WASH'ER, n.

1. One who washes.
2. An iron ring between the nave of a wheel and the linchpin.

WASH'ER-WOM-AN, n.

A woman that washes clothes for others, or for hire.

WASH'ING, n.

1. The act of cleansing with water; ablution. Heb. ix.
2. A wash; or the clothes washed.

WASH'ING, ppr.

Cleansing with water; purifying; overflowing; overspreading.

WASH'ING-MA-CHINE, n.

A machine for washing clothes.

WASH'-POT, n.

A vessel in which any thing is washed. – Cowley.

WASH'-TUB, n.

A tub in which clothes are washed.

WASH'Y, a. [from wash.]

1. Watery; damp; soft; as, the washy ooze. – Milton.
2. Weak; not solid. – Wotton.
3. Weak; not firm or hardy; liable to sweat profusely with labor; as, a washy horse. [New England.]

WASP, n. [Sax. wæsp or wæps; D. wesp; G. wespe; L. vespa; Fr. guèpe; Sp. avispa; Port. bespa.]

In entomology, a genus of insects, Vespa, of the order of Hymenopters. The mouth is horny; the upper wings plicated; the abdomen joined to the thorax by a thread-like pedicle, and the sting concealed. Wasps construct combs, and rear their young in the cells. The sting is painful. – Cyc.

WASP-BITE, n.

The bite of a wasp.

WASP'-FLY, n.

A species of fly resembling a wasp, but having no sting, and but two wings. – Cyc.

WASP'ISH, a.

1. Snappish; petulant; irritable; irascible; quick to resent any trifling affront. Much do I suffer, much, to keep in peace This jealous, waspish, wrong-head, rhyming race. – Pope.
2. Having a very slender waist, like a wasp.

WASP'ISH-LY, adv.

Petulantly; in a snappish manner.