washen

washen is the alternative past participle of wash.

Meaning of wash

Verb

wash (third-person singular simple present washes, present participle washing, simple past washed, past participle washed or (archaic) washen)

(transitive) To clean with water.
- The car is so dirty, we need to wash it.
(transitive) To carry away or erode by the force of water in motion.
- Don't pour that in the drain; it will wash downstream.
(intransitive) To be eroded or carried away by the action of water.
(intransitive) To clean oneself with water.
- I wash every morning after getting up.
(transitive) To cover with water or any liquid; to wet; to fall on and moisten.
- Waves wash the shore.
(intransitive) To move with a lapping or swashing sound; to lap or splash.
- to hear the water washing

See all 42 meanings of wash

Adjective

washen (comparative more washen, superlative most washen)

(archaic) clean
- He becomes washen by washing away evil and wrong states.1926, Sir Robert Chalmers, “Further dialogues of the Buddha”, in Bibliotheca Indo-Buddhica, volume 1, numbers 44-45
- Morag put on a second petticoat of exactly the same material and shape, except that its colour was a dull red. Now she would be ready in a minute, thought Kirsty. Morag put on a third petticoat, of a more washen red than the second, but this one would not fix without its safety-pin.1975, Neil Miller Gunn, Morning tide

Antonyms of washen

unwashen

Forms of washen

comparative	more washen
superlative	most washen

Origin of washen

From Middle English wasshen, waschen, ywasshe (past participle of wasshen (“to wash”)), from Old English wasċen, ġewasċen (“washed”, past participle of wasċan (“to wash”)), equivalent to wash + -en. Cognate with Saterland Frisian waasken (“washed, washen”), West Frisian wosken (“washed, washen”), Dutch gewassen (“washed, washen”), German Low German wusken (“washed, washen”), German gewaschen (“washed, washen”). More at wash.

Questions about washen

What does washen mean?: Washen means clean.
What is washen the alternative past participle of?: Washen is the alternative past participle of wash.
What part of speech is washen?: Washen is an adjective.

Words near washen in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: washen (page history and authors); 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: 2026-09-02

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