wash one's hands

Definitions

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see wash, one's, hands.
2. To go to the toilet.
   euphemistic
3. To absolve oneself of responsibility or future blame for; to refuse to have any further involvement with.
   figuratively

Equivalents

17 more languages

العربيةغسل يديه من الأمر

Ελληνικάνίπτω τας χείρας μου

Suomipestä kätensä

Magyarmossa kezeit

Íslenskaláta sigla sinn sjóþvo hendur sínar af

Italianolavarsene le mani

日本語手を引く

한국어손떼다손씻다

Bahasa Melayucuci tangan

Nederlandsde handen in onschuld wassen

Polskiumywać ręce

Portuguêslavar as mãosredimir-se de

Русскийумывать рукиумыть руки

Svenskatvå sina händer

తెలుగుచేతులు కడుగుకొను

ไทยล้างมือ

Tagalogmaghugas-kamay

Examples

“Be sure to wash⟳ your hands before preparing food.”

“If you're healthy and you know⟳ it, wash⟳ your hands! If you're healthy and you know⟳ it, wash⟳ your hands!”

“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.”

“'Then I vvaſh my Hands of you,' cries the Doctor, 'and I deſire you to pay⟳ me for the Trouble⟳ I have⟳ had already.[…].'”

“He had entirely washed his hands of the difficulty, and it had become⟳ ours.”

“It was no affair of his; he had long ago washed his hands of the whole matter⟳, and left things to take⟳ their chance.”

“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.”

“[A]fter Congress had refused to appropriate money to continue⟳ them, President [Franklin Delano] Roosevelt washed his hands of the two ventures.”

“Janet Dench, the executive director of the Canadian Council for refugees, said that both countries are "washing their hands" of the problem.”

“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?”

“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⟳.”

CEFR level