Word.ws English Dictionary

hand wash

hand wash noun: an instance of washing one’s hands. Also the alternative form of handwash.

Noun

hand wash (countable and uncountable, plural hand washes)

  1. (countable) An instance of washing one’s hands.
    • Davis (11) compared hand exposures of apple thinners using gloves and hand washes. He found that hand exposures obtained by rinsing were significantly lower than those obtained by using either cotton or nylon gloves.1985, Claire A. Franklin, “Occupational Exposure to Pesticides and Its Role in Risk Assessment Procedures Used in Canada”, in Richard C. Honeycutt, Gunter Zweig, Nancy N. Ragsdale, editors, Dermal...
    • He had intrusive thoughts about people suffering from diseases which he was personally responsible for spreading. At first, several hand washes were enough to reduce his anxiety; however, he began to feel that simply washing his hands was not enough.1992, Frank Tallis, “The Development of Obsessions and Compulsions, and How to Assess Your Symptoms”, in Understanding Obsessions and Compulsions: A Self-Help Manual (Overcoming Common Problems)...
    Synonyms:
    handwashing
  2. (countable) An instance of washing something by hand.
    • FIG. 2. Results of giving a hand wash to worsted fabric.1961 September, Edwin G. Sutcliffe, “Now a Permanent Flat-Press for Worsted!”, in Textile Industries, Atlanta, Ga.: W. R. C. Smith Publishing Co., page 109, column 3
    • See the Westinghouse washer with exclusive hand-wash action at your Westinghouse dealer. You’ll never do a hand wash again.1969 October 14, Westinghouse, “The end of hand washing”, in The Lincoln Star, 68th year, number 11, Lincoln, Neb., page 7

Verb

hand wash (third-person singular simple present hand washes, present participle hand washing, simple past and past participle hand washed)

  1. (transitive) To wash by hand.
    • hand wash only; tumble dry low
    • When management of the toney Copley Plaza Hotel ordered housekeepers recently to put down their mops and hand wash the floors, a furor arose among the hotel cleaning staff. Local union representatives and others concerned with issues affecting women workers also rallied in anger to protest the...1987 December 13, Elizabeth Pincus, “Copping To The Mop Scandal”, in Gay Community News, volume 15, number 22, page 1

Also used as

hand wash is also the alternative form of handwash.

Examples of hand wash in a sentence

  • Hand washing for 15 to 30 seconds using ordinary soap and water will remove transient bacteria from the hands due to the mechanical action of the friction while rubbing and scrubbing during the wash.2008, Frank M. Pierson, Sheryl L. Fairchild, “[Approaches to Infection Control] Hand Hygiene”, in Principles & Techniques of Patient Care...
  • Cooper et al. [20] found that even small increases in the frequency of effective hand washes were enough to bring endemic nosocomial infective organisms under control in a computer model.2009, Judith A. Challis, “Sterilization; Disinfection, and Antisepsis”, in Emanuel Goldman, Lorrence H. Green, editors, Practical Handbook...
  • Only 52% of the hand washes were considered good.2010, Helen Cheney, “Control of infection”, in Ethel Trigg, Toby Aslam Mohammed, editors, Practices in Children’s Nursing: Guidelines for...
  • We reviewed when and how hand washes were done legitimately for religious and functional purposes.2015, Leslie J. Shapiro, “Taking Control Where You Can and Must”, in Understanding OCD: Skills to Control the Conscience and Outsmart...

Synonyms of hand wash

Forms of hand wash

Noun
pluralhand washes
alternative formhand-wash
Verb
third-person singular presenthand washes
present participlehand washing
past participlehand washed
pasthand washed
alternative formhandwash

Origin of hand wash

From hand + wash (noun).

From hand + wash (verb).

Questions about hand wash

What does hand wash mean?
Hand wash means an instance of washing one’s hands.
How do you use hand wash in a sentence?
Hand washing for 15 to 30 seconds using ordinary soap and water will remove transient bacteria from the hands due to the mechanical action of the friction while rubbing and scrubbing during the wash.
What part of speech is hand wash?
Hand wash can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of hand wash?
The plural of hand wash is hand washes.

Words near hand wash in the dictionary

  1. hand trunk
  2. hand trunks
  3. hand turkey
  4. hand turkeys
  5. hand up
  6. hand wash
  7. hand washable
  8. hand washed
  9. hand washes
  10. hand washing
  11. hand washings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hand wash (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “hand wash.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hand_wash. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.