washout

See also: wash out and wash-out

English

Alternative forms

• wash-out

Etymology

From wash out (verb).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwɒʃaʊt/

Noun

washout (plural washouts)

1. An appliance designed to wash something out.

   The cistern was fitted with washouts and air-valves.

2. (biology, medicine) The cleaning of matter from a physiological system using a fluid.

   a bladder washout

3. (medicine) A period between clinical treatments in which any medication delivered as the first treatment is allowed to wash out of the person before the second treatment begins.
4. (meteorology) The action whereby falling rainwater clean particles from the air.
5. A channel produced by the erosion of a relatively soft surface by a sudden gush of water; a breach in a road or railway caused by flooding.
6. (informal) A disappointment or total failure; an unsuccessful person.

   As an actor, he was a complete washout, so he went back to accounting.

7. A sporting fixture or other event that could not be completed because of rain.
   • 1939, The Railroad Telegrapher (volume 56, page 779)

     The Austin picnic was a washout, rained all day.

8. The aerodynamic effect of a small twist in the shape of an aircraft wing

Translations

A disappointment or total failure; an unsuccessful person

• Russian: неудачник (ru) m (neudačnik)
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Anagrams

• outwash