wash one's hands

English

WOTD – 7 June 2023

Etymology

The figurative sense comes 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.”^[1]^[2]

Another literal and figurative usage of the expression can be traced to Deuteronomy 21:6 where the elders of Israel are commanded to "wash their hands" as part of a ceremonial absolution ritual initiated upon the discovery of a corpse outside the jurisdiction of any city.

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌwɒʃ wʌnz ˈhæn(d)z/
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˌwɔʃ wʌnz ˈhæn(d)z/
Audio (General Australian): (file)
(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌwɒʃ wʌnz ˈhæn(d)z‿əv/
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˌwɔʃ wʌnz ˈhæn(d)z‿əv/
Audio (General Australian): (file)

Verb

wash one's hands (third-person singular simple present washes one's hands, present participle washing one's hands, simple past and past participle washed one's hands)

Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see wash,‎ one's,‎ hands.
Be sure to wash your hands before preparing food.
- 2020, traditional, “If You're Healthy and You Know It”:
  If you're healthy and you know it, wash your hands!
  If you're healthy and you know it, wash your hands!
(euphemistic) To go to the toilet.
(figuratively) To absolve oneself of responsibility or future blame for; to refuse to have any further involvement with. [with of ‘something’]
Synonyms: disclaim, disown; see also Thesaurus:repudiate
- 1693, Will[iam] Congreve, The Old Batchelour, a Comedy. […], London: […] Peter Buck, […], →OCLC, Act II, scene i, 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[ndrew] 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. […].'
- 1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, “Quite at Home”, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC, page 53:
  He had entirely washed his hands of the difficulty, and it had become ours.
- 1884, H[enry] Rider Haggard, chapter VII, in Dawn […], volume III, London: Hurst and Blackett, […], →OCLC, page 70:
  It was no affair of his; he had long ago washed his hands of the whole matter, and left things to take their chance.
- 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^[1], New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 1 January 2012:
  [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^[2], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 11 March 2016:
  Janet Dench, the executive director of the Canadian Council for refugees, said that both countries are "washing their hands" of the problem.
- 2012, Jeff Bhasker, Nate Ruess, Andrew Dost, Jack Antonoff, “Some Nights”, in Some Nights), performed by fun.:
  so this is it?
  I sold my soul for this?
  Washed my hands of that for this?
  I miss my mom and dad for this?
- 2024 March 20, Philip Haigh, “Euston is the key to unlocking HS2's true potential”, in RAIL, number 1005, page 49:
  By contrast, today's government ministers appear to have washed their hands of Euston, perhaps thinking that its development can be entirely left to the private sector. I think that's a mistake.

Translations

to absolve oneself of responsibility or future blame for

Arabic: غَسَلَ يَدَيْهِ مِنَ الْأَمْرِ (ḡasala yadayhi mina l-ʔamri)
Catalan: rentar-se'n les mans, rentar-se'n les mans com Pilat
Chinese:
Mandarin: 金盆洗手 (zh) (jīnpénxǐshǒu)
Dutch: de handen in onschuld wassen
Finnish: pestä kätensä (fi)
French: se laver les mains de (fr)
German: die Hände in Unschuld waschen (de)
Greek: νίπτω τας χείρας μου (el) (nípto tas cheíras mou)
Hungarian: mossa kezeit (hu)
Icelandic: láta sigla sinn sjó, þvo hendur sínar af
Indonesian: cuci tangan (id)
Italian: lavarsene le mani (it)
Japanese: 手を引く (ja) (te o hiku)
Korean: 손씻다 (sonssitda), 손떼다 (sontteda)
Macedonian: ми́е ра́це од (míe ráce od)
Malay: cuci tangan (ms)
Polish: umywać ręce (pl) impf
Portuguese: lavar as mãos, redimir-se de
Russian: умыть руки (ru) (umytʹ ruki), умывать руки (ru) (umyvatʹ ruki)
Spanish: lavarse las manos (es), desentenderse (es)
Swedish: två sina händer (sv)
Tagalog: maghugas-kamay
Telugu: చేతులు కడుగుకొను (cētulu kaḍugukonu)

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: Oxford University Press, March 2023; “wash one’s hands of, phrase”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.