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wash one's hands of. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
wash one's hands of, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
wash one's hands of in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
From the account in Matthew 27:24 of the Bible in which Pontius Pilate, unwilling to condemn Jesus who has committed no crime but whose crucifixion the crowd has called for, symbolically washes his hands in public and says (according to the King James Version; spelling modernized): “I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.”
Pronunciation
Verb
wash one's hands of (third-person singular simple present washes one's hands of, present participle washing one's hands of, simple past and past participle washed one's hands of)
- (transitive, idiomatic) To absolve oneself of responsibility or future blame for (something); to refuse to have any further involvement with (something).
- Synonyms: disclaim, disown; see also Thesaurus:repudiate
1693, [William] Congreve, The Old Batchelour, a Comedy. , 2nd edition, London: Peter Buck, , →OCLC, Act II, page 11:Sharp[er]. […] Mony is but Dirt, Sir Joſeph—Mere Dirt. / Sir Jo[seph Wittoll]. But I profeſs, it is a Dirt I have vvaſhed my Hands of at preſent; I have laid it all out upon my Back.
1749, Henry Fielding, “In which the Surgeon Makes His Second Appearance”, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume III, London: A Millar, , →OCLC, book VIII, page 165:'Then I vvaſh my Hands of you,' cries the Doctor, 'and I deſire you to pay me for the Trouble I have had already. […].'
1916 September, Rex Beach, “El Demonio’s Child”, in Rainbow’s End , New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 245:Although Norine had pretended to wash her hands of all responsibility for Branch's little charge, she was by no means so inhuman as she appeared.
1936 June 8, “National Affairs: Ditch Up, Dam Down”, in Henry R[obinson] Luce, editor, Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2012-01-01:[A]fter Congress had refused to appropriate money to continue them, President [Franklin Delano] Roosevelt washed his hands of the two ventures.
2003 March 13, “Immigration: Vermont refugee aid group says policy thins resources”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2016-03-11:Janet Dench, the executive director of the Canadian Council for refugees, said that both countries are "washing their hands" of the problem.
Related terms
Translations
to absolve oneself of responsibility or future blame for
References
- ^ The Holy Bible, (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , 1611, →OCLC, Matthew 27:24, column 1: “When Pilate ſaw that he could preuaile nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, hee tooke water, and waſhed his handes before the multitude, ſaying, I am innocent of the blood of this iuſt perſon: ſee yee to it.”.
- ^ “to wash one’s hands of, phrase” under “wash, v.”, in OED Online , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2023; “wash one’s hands of, phrase”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Further reading