washout

• wash-out

From wash out (verb).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈwɒʃaʊt/

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.
6. A breach in a road or railway caused by flooding.
   • 2020 August 26, “Network News: Shapps orders rapid review of flash flood resilience from NR”, in Rail, page 9:

     In a message to NR staff on August 14, Haines said: "It's not just Scotland impacted by extreme wet weather. This week we have seen, and will continue to see, heavy rain fall. This has caused washouts and landslips across the length and breadth of Great Britain.

7. The cleaning of the inside of a (locomotive) boiler to remove scale (limescale).
   • 1944 March and April, E. S. Waterhouse, “Two Footplate Rides on "Merchant Navy" Locomotives”, in Railway Magazine, page 88:

     No. 21C9 was in need of a boiler washout and though she was carefully and assiduously fired and use made of the fire-irons during the run, it was not possible to maintain steam, which often fell as low as 210 lb.

   • 1959 April, “Motive Power Miscellany: Eastern Region”, in Trains Illustrated, page 224:

     In recent months, as we have already reported, boiler washouts of Stratford's "Britannia" Pacifics have been carried out at Norwich, owing to the better staff situation at the latter shed, […]

8. (informal) A disappointment or total failure; an unsuccessful person.

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

   • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Where Silas Linden Comes into His Own”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

     "I thought you was going into the business yourself." "That's a wash-out," snarled Silas.

   • 2022 November 11, Hugo Lowell, “Rift in Trump’s inner circle over 2024 presidential campaign announcement”, in The Guardian‎:

     With the ex-president facing heat for the GOP’s midterm washout, there is conflict on if he should hold off next week’s event[.]

9. 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.

10. The aerodynamic effect of a small twist in the shape of an aircraft wing.
11. An overwhelming victory; a landslide.
    • 2011, ABC News (Australia), 28 March 2011, headline

      Illawarra turns blue in Liberal washout

    • 2020, MailOnline, 4 November 2020, article "Piers Morgan blames the Democrats and Joe Biden's lacklustre campaign"

      Biden failed to flip crucial toss-up states such as Florida and Ohio and pull off the blue washout his supporters had been touting.

• washout plug (boilers)

• outwash