Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also wash) a disappointment, a failure.

1902		Westminster Gazette 1 Nov. 2/1: As Harker remarked, ‘Half a guinea for an essay is no wash-out’ .
1915		J. Buchan Thirty-Nine Steps (1930) 46: You’re a Free Trader, and can tell our people what a wash-out Protection is in the Colonies.
1918		J.M. Grider War Birds (1926) 74: Yesterday was a washout day so we all went into town again.
1919		W.H. Downing Digger Dialects 53: washout — (1) A failure; (2) an empty, useless or ineffectual thing.
1923		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 11 Aug. 15/1: It makes all the difference between a profitable haul and a wash-out .
1929		L. Thomas Woodfill of the Regulars 308: I guess the Jew isn’t such a washout as a fighter.
1935		A. Christie Three Act Tragedy (1964) 116: We know now that certain of those ideas are definitely washouts.
1939		K. Tennant Foveaux 31: Bob Noblett says Twofold’s a washout.
c.1940–5		‘Myles na gCopaleen’ Best of Myles (1968) 218: From what small two-letter word may the whole thing be said to have been a wash-out?
1941		A. Gurney Bluey & Curley 10 Dec. [synd. cartoon] You’re a wash-out!
1950		A. Buckeridge Jennings Goes To School 46: It’s all a wash-out, now.
1963		A. Baron Lowlife (2001) 30: The two girls married washouts.
1975		F.A. Cleary A Pocketful of Years 92: He was growling about Gus being a football washout.
1989		H. Leonard Out After Dark 117: Oh, a washout.
1990		Beano Comic Library No. 190 42: This holiday’s a wash-out!
1999		Guardian 13 Aug. 14: Perhaps the evening wasn’t going to be a total washout after all.
2002		C. Stella Jimmy Bench-Press 169: There’s always a chance your charges againt Fama will stick [...] I’m not saying it’s a complete wash.
2007		N. ‘Razor’ Smith Raiders 192: The Hendon job had been a bit of a wash-out, but at least none of us had been nicked.
2013		T. Piccirilli Last Whisper in the Dark 278: ‘We’ll call it a wash. You walk away and you stay away’.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 252: He said she’s a wash — doesn’t know shit from Shinola.

2. (US prison) a life sentence.

1910		J. Sullivan ‘Criminal Sl.’ in Amer. Law Rev. LII (1918) 891: ‘Track 13’ and ‘washout’ is a life sentence in a Western penitentiary.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 235/1: Washout. (Rare) A life-sentence with no parole; a death-sentence.

3. a useless or unsuccessful person; thus washed-out adj.

1917		A.G. Empey Over the Top 12: The Captain sent for me and informed me: ‘Empey, as a recruiting Sergeant you are a washout.’.
1927		(con. 1920s) S. Lewis Elmer Gantry 415: Would you condemn a fine aspiring institution full of broad-gauged, earnest fellows, because one of them was a wash-out?
1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 138: He ranks very low down among the wines and spirits. A washout, I should describe him as.
1945		(con. 1928) R. Westerby Mad in Pursuit 100: I seen a million drunks. All washouts.
1946		(con. 1912) B. Marshall George Brown’s Schooldays 8: You washed-out ruin.
1959		D. Niland Big Smoke 16: Hay’s got another washout. Where does he pick ’em up?
1966		B. Reckord Skyvers I ii: So long as people are talking about him he doesn’t care if they’re only saying he’s a washout.
1979		A. Brink Dry White Season 20: Her mother, I believe, was something of a sentimental wash-out who meekly followed her lord and master.
1983		(con. 1940s) D. Nobbs Second From Last in the Sack Race 195: With Diana such a wash-out [...] Henry didn’t think he could stand a week of it.
1991		J. Osborne Déjàvu Act I: Bit of a wash-out ...
2013		J. Stahl Happy Mutant Baby Pills 113: Some seven-dollar-an-hour Police Academy washout.

4. a failure in a test or examination.

1993		B. Moore Lex. of Cadet Lang. 420: usage: ‘He had a washout in all his subjects.’.
2004		T. Winton ‘Immunity’ in Turning (2005) 296: You wave a flag for a washout, a total miss.