wash-out n.
1. (also wash) a disappointment, a failure.
![]() | Westminster Gazette 1 Nov. 2/1: As Harker remarked, ‘Half a guinea for an essay is no wash-out’ . | |
![]() | Thirty-Nine Steps (1930) 46: You’re a Free Trader, and can tell our people what a wash-out Protection is in the Colonies. | |
![]() | War Birds (1926) 74: Yesterday was a washout day so we all went into town again. | |
![]() | Digger Dialects 53: washout — (1) A failure; (2) an empty, useless or ineffectual thing. | |
![]() | Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 11 Aug. 15/1: It makes all the difference between a profitable haul and a wash-out . | |
![]() | Woodfill of the Regulars 308: I guess the Jew isn’t such a washout as a fighter. | |
![]() | Three Act Tragedy (1964) 116: We know now that certain of those ideas are definitely washouts. | |
![]() | Foveaux 31: Bob Noblett says Twofold’s a washout. | |
![]() | Best of Myles (1968) 218: From what small two-letter word may the whole thing be said to have been a wash-out? | |
![]() | Eggs, Beans & Crumpets ((1951)) 151: ‘I am compelled to admit that my expedition has been a wash-out’. | |
![]() | Bluey & Curley 10 Dec. [synd. cartoon] You’re a wash-out! | |
![]() | Jennings Goes To School 46: It’s all a wash-out, now. | |
![]() | Lowlife (2001) 30: The two girls married washouts. | |
![]() | A Pocketful of Years 92: He was growling about Gus being a football washout. | |
![]() | Out After Dark 117: Oh, a washout. | |
![]() | Beano Comic Library No. 190 42: This holiday’s a wash-out! | |
![]() | Guardian 13 Aug. 14: Perhaps the evening wasn’t going to be a total washout after all. | |
![]() | Jimmy Bench-Press 169: There’s always a chance your charges againt Fama will stick [...] I’m not saying it’s a complete wash. | |
![]() | Raiders 192: The Hendon job had been a bit of a wash-out, but at least none of us had been nicked. | |
![]() | Last Whisper in the Dark 278: ‘We’ll call it a wash. You walk away and you stay away’. | |
![]() | (con. 1962) Enchanters 252: He said she’s a wash — doesn’t know shit from Shinola. |
2. (US prison) a life sentence.
![]() | Amer. Law Rev. LII (1918) 891: ‘Track 13’ and ‘washout’ is a life sentence in a Western penitentiary. | ‘Criminal Sl.’ in|
![]() | Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | |
![]() | DAUL 235/1: Washout. (Rare) A life-sentence with no parole; a death-sentence. | et al.
3. a useless or unsuccessful person; thus washed-out adj.
![]() | Over the Top 12: The Captain sent for me and informed me: ‘Empey, as a recruiting Sergeant you are a washout.’. | |
![]() | (con. 1920s) Elmer Gantry 415: Would you condemn a fine aspiring institution full of broad-gauged, earnest fellows, because one of them was a wash-out? | |
![]() | Right Ho, Jeeves 138: He ranks very low down among the wines and spirits. A washout, I should describe him as. | |
![]() | (con. 1928) Mad in Pursuit 100: I seen a million drunks. All washouts. | |
![]() | (con. 1912) George Brown’s Schooldays 8: You washed-out ruin. | |
![]() | Big Smoke 16: Hay’s got another washout. Where does he pick ’em up? | |
![]() | Skyvers I ii: So long as people are talking about him he doesn’t care if they’re only saying he’s a washout. | |
![]() | Dry White Season 20: Her mother, I believe, was something of a sentimental wash-out who meekly followed her lord and master. | |
![]() | (con. 1940s) 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. | |
![]() | Déjàvu Act I: Bit of a wash-out ... | |
![]() | Happy Mutant Baby Pills 113: Some seven-dollar-an-hour Police Academy washout. |
4. a failure in a test or examination.
![]() | Lex. of Cadet Lang. 420: usage: ‘He had a washout in all his subjects.’. | |
![]() | Turning (2005) 296: You wave a flag for a washout, a total miss. | ‘Immunity’ in