wash [OE] An Old English word that is related to *water. Someone who is washed up is no longer effective or successful—they are like something thrown up on to a beach. The first example of the expression, from the 1920s in the USA, states that it is stage slang. Similarly ineffective or disappointing is a wash-out, recorded from around 1900, which in RAF slang was specifically a person who failed a training course. To wash your hands is a euphemism for going to the lavatory—a male equivalent of powdering your nose, used since the 1930s. To wash your hands of, or disclaim responsibility for, is a biblical allusion to the Gospel of Matthew. Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judaea who presided at the trial of Jesus, was unwilling to authorize his crucifixion, but saw that the crowd were intent on his death. ‘He [Pilate] took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person.’