Word.ws English Dictionary

doing the dishes

doing the dishes is the present participle and gerund of do the dishes.

Meaning of do the dishes

Verb

do the dishes (third-person singular simple present does the dishes, present participle doing the dishes, simple past did the dishes, past participle done the dishes)

  1. (intransitive) To wash up dirty crockery (plates and dishes) and cutlery (knives, forks, and spoons).
    • I make my children do the dishes if they are impolite during dinner.

Questions about doing the dishes

What is doing the dishes the present participle and gerund of?
Doing the dishes is the present participle and gerund of do the dishes.

Words near doing the dishes in the dictionary

  1. doing someone's heart good
  2. doing the dash
  3. doing the decent thing
  4. doing the deed
  5. doing the dirty on
  6. doing the dishes
  7. doing the Dutch
  8. doing the handsome thing
  9. doing the hard yards
  10. doing the honor
  11. doing the honors

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: doing the dishes (page history and authors); do the dishes (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “doing the dishes.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/doing_the_dishes. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.