Word.ws English Dictionary

wish-washed

wish-washed is the simple past and past participle of wish-wash.

Meaning of wish-wash

Verb

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

  1. To slosh around.
    • And that night, with the stars jumping and the air lating cold (for we were up in the 40's), and the John wish-washing through the seas at three leagues the hour, MacMuir told me the story of Mungo Maxwell.1908, Great Thoughts from Master Minds, page 186
  2. To behave in a wishy-washy manner, to vacillate
    • Hain't been a fair election in 15 years to my knowing, and I am confident about what I am talking about, but I am getting sick and tired of this wish-washing about eating tickets; have known them to do this after election.1921, United States. Congress. House, Contested-election Case of James I. Campbell V. Robert L. Doughton, page 644

See all 7 meanings of wish-wash

Questions about wish-washed

What is wish-washed the simple past and past participle of?
Wish-washed is the simple past and past participle of wish-wash.

Words near wish-washed in the dictionary

  1. wish you well
  2. wish'd
  3. wish-cycling
  4. wish-fulfilling
  5. wish-wash
  6. wish-washed
  7. wish-washes
  8. wish-washing
  9. Wish.com
  10. wisha
  11. wishable

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wish-washed (page history and authors); wish-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.

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