bewash

English

Etymology

From be- +‎ wash.

Verb

bewash (third-person singular simple present bewashes, present participle bewashing, simple past and past participle bewashed)

1. (transitive, rare) To drench (someone or something) with water; to wash (someone or something) all over.
   • 1648, Robert Herrick, “Saint Distaffs Day, or the Morrow after Twelth Day”, in Hesperides: Or, The Works both Humane & Divine […], London: […] John Williams, and Francis Eglesfield, and are to be sold by Tho[mas] Hunt, […], →OCLC, page 374:

     Bring in pailes of vvater then, / Let the Maides bevvaſh the men.

   • 1901, Three Northern Love Stories and Other Tales:

     And me no more shall any Gold glittering of the maidens / Henceforth, in all my life-days, / In ashen bath bewash me.