Word.ws English Dictionary

lather, rinse, repeat

lather, rinse, repeat phrase: indicating that an action or process was repeated, or needs to be repeated.

Phrase

lather, rinse, repeat

  1. (humorous, informal, often) Indicating that an action or process was repeated, or needs to be repeated.
    • Use the step backward icon again and experiment with the other three icons, drawing overlapping shapes. Lather, rinse, repeat.2005, Deke McClelland, Galen Fott, Photoshop Elements 3 for Dummies
    • Then, burned-out after a spring and summer of machining, testing, tweaking, lather, rinse, repeat, I took a driving vacation with my husband […]2006, Annalee Newitz, Charlie Anders, She's such a geek!: women write about science, technology and other nerdy stuff
  2. (informal, sarcastic) Indicating that an action or process happens often and is futile.

Forms of lather, rinse, repeat

alternative formwash, rinse, repeat
alternative formrinse and repeat
alternative formrinse-repeat

Origin of lather, rinse, repeat

From the directions on a bottle of shampoo.

Questions about lather, rinse, repeat

What does lather, rinse, repeat mean?
Lather, rinse, repeat means indicating that an action or process was repeated, or needs to be repeated.
What part of speech is lather, rinse, repeat?
Lather, rinse, repeat is a phrase.

Words near lather, rinse, repeat in the dictionary

  1. lathemen
  2. Lathems
  3. lathen
  4. lather
  5. lather up
  6. lather, rinse, repeat
  7. latherability
  8. latherable
  9. lathered
  10. lathered up
  11. lathereeve

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lather, rinse, repeat (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-lather, rinse, repeat.ogg.

Cite this entry: “lather, rinse, repeat.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lather%2C_rinse%2C_repeat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.