The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Washing \Wash"ing\, n.
   1. The act of one who washes; the act of cleansing with
      water; ablution.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. The clothes washed, esp. at one time; a wash.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. (Mining) Gold dust procured by washing; also, a place
      where this is done; a washery.
      [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

   4. A thin covering or coat; as, a washing of silver.
      [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

   5. (Stock Exchanges) The operation of simultaneously buying
      and selling the same stock for the purpose of manipulating
      the market. The transaction is fictitious, and is
      prohibited by stock-exchange rules.
      [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

   6. (Pottery) The covering of a piece with an infusible
      powder, which prevents it from sticking to its supports,
      while receiving the glaze.
      [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

   Washing bear (Zool.), the raccoon.

   Washing bottle (Chem.), a bottle fitted with glass tubes
      passing through the cork, so that on blowing into one of
      the tubes a stream of water issuing from the other may be
      directed upon anything to be washed or rinsed, as a
      precipitate upon a filter, etc.

   Washing fluid, a liquid used as a cleanser, and consisting
      usually of alkaline salts resembling soaps in their
      action.

   Washing machine, a machine for washing; specifically, a
      machine for washing clothes.

   Washing soda. (Chem.) See Sodium carbonate, under
      Sodium.

   Washing stuff, any earthy deposit containing gold enough to
      pay for washing it; -- so called among gold miners.
      [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Wash \Wash\ (w[o^]sh), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Washed; p. pr. &
   vb. n. Washing.] [OE. waschen, AS. wascan; akin to D.
   wasschen, G. waschen, OHG. wascan, Icel. & Sw. vaska, Dan.
   vaske, and perhaps to E. water. [root]150.]
   1. To cleanse by ablution, or dipping or rubbing in water; to
      apply water or other liquid to for the purpose of
      cleansing; to scrub with water, etc., or as with water;
      as, to wash the hands or body; to wash garments; to wash
      sheep or wool; to wash the pavement or floor; to wash the
      bark of trees.
      [1913 Webster]

            When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, . . .
            he took water and washed his hands before the
            multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of
            this just person.                     --Matt. xxvii.
                                                  24.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To cover with water or any liquid; to wet; to fall on and
      moisten; hence, to overflow or dash against; as, waves
      wash the shore.
      [1913 Webster]

            Fresh-blown roses washed with dew.    --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

            [The landscape] washed with a cold, gray mist.
                                                  --Longfellow.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. To waste or abrade by the force of water in motion; as,
      heavy rains wash a road or an embankment.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. To remove by washing to take away by, or as by, the action
      of water; to drag or draw off as by the tide; -- often
      with away, off, out, etc.; as, to wash dirt from the
      hands.
      [1913 Webster]

            Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins.
                                                  --Acts xxii.
                                                  16.
      [1913 Webster]

            The tide will wash you off.           --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   5. To cover with a thin or watery coat of color; to tint
      lightly and thinly.
      [1913 Webster]

   6. To overlay with a thin coat of metal; as, steel washed
      with silver.
      [1913 Webster]

   7. To cause dephosphorisation of (molten pig iron) by adding
      substances containing iron oxide, and sometimes manganese
      oxide.
      [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

   8. To pass (a gas or gaseous mixture) through or over a
      liquid for the purpose of purifying it, esp. by removing
      soluble constituents.
      [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

   To wash gold, etc., to treat earth or gravel, or crushed
      ore, with water, in order to separate the gold or other
      metal, or metallic ore, through their higher density.

   To wash the hands of. See under Hand.
      [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Wash \Wash\, n.
   1. The act of washing; an ablution; a cleansing, wetting, or
      dashing with water; hence, a quantity, as of clothes,
      washed at once.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. A piece of ground washed by the action of a sea or river,
      or sometimes covered and sometimes left dry; the
      shallowest part of a river, or arm of the sea; also, a
      bog; a marsh; a fen; as, the washes in Lincolnshire. "The
      Wash of Edmonton so gay." --Cowper.
      [1913 Webster]

            These Lincoln washes have devoured them. --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. Substances collected and deposited by the action of water;
      as, the wash of a sewer, of a river, etc.
      [1913 Webster]

            The wash of pastures, fields, commons, and roads,
            where rain water hath a long time settled.
                                                  --Mortimer.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. Waste liquid, the refuse of food, the collection from
      washed dishes, etc., from a kitchen, often used as food
      for pigs. --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   5. (Distilling)
      (a) The fermented wort before the spirit is extracted.
      (b) A mixture of dunder, molasses, water, and scummings,
          used in the West Indies for distillation. --B.
          Edwards.
          [1913 Webster]

   6. That with which anything is washed, or wetted, smeared,
      tinted, etc., upon the surface. Specifically:
      [1913 Webster]
      (a) A liquid cosmetic for the complexion.
          [1913 Webster]
      (b) A liquid dentifrice.
          [1913 Webster]
      (c) A liquid preparation for the hair; as, a hair wash.
          [1913 Webster]
      (d) A medical preparation in a liquid form for external
          application; a lotion.
          [1913 Webster]
      (e) (Painting) A thin coat of color, esp. water color.
          [1913 Webster]
      (j) A thin coat of metal applied in a liquid form on any
          object, for beauty or preservation; -- called also
          washing.
          [1913 Webster +PJC]

   7. (Naut.)
      (a) The blade of an oar, or the thin part which enters the
          water.
      (b) The backward current or disturbed water caused by the
          action of oars, or of a steamer's screw or paddles,
          etc.
          [1913 Webster]

   8. The flow, swash, or breaking of a body of water, as a
      wave; also, the sound of it.
      [1913 Webster]

   9. Ten strikes, or bushels, of oysters. [Prov. Eng.]
      [1913 Webster]

   10. [Western U. S.] (Geol.)
       (a) Gravel and other rock d['e]bris transported and
           deposited by running water; coarse alluvium.
       (b) An alluvial cone formed by a stream at the base of a
           mountain.
           [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

   11. The dry bed of an intermittent stream, sometimes at the
       bottom of a canyon; as, the Amargosa wash, Diamond wash;
       -- called also dry wash. [Western U. S.]
       [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

   12. (Arch.) The upper surface of a member or material when
       given a slope to shed water. Hence, a structure or
       receptacle shaped so as to receive and carry off water,
       as a carriage wash in a stable.
       [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

   13. an action or situation in which the gains and losses are
       equal, or closely compensate each other.
       [PJC]

   14. (Aeronautics) the disturbance of the air left behind in
       the wake of a moving airplane or one of its parts.
       [PJC]

   Wash ball, a ball of soap to be used in washing the hands
      or face. --Swift.

   Wash barrel (Fisheries), a barrel nearly full of split
      mackerel, loosely put in, and afterward filled with salt
      water in order to soak the blood from the fish before
      salting.

   Wash bottle. (Chem.)
       (a) A bottle partially filled with some liquid through
           which gases are passed for the purpose of purifying
           them, especially by removing soluble constituents.
       (b) A washing bottle. See under Washing.

   Wash gilding. See Water gilding.

   Wash leather, split sheepskin dressed with oil, in
      imitation of chamois, or shammy, and used for dusting,
      cleaning glass or plate, etc.; also, alumed, or buff,
      leather for soldiers' belts.
      [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

washing
    n 1: the work of cleansing (usually with soap and water) [syn:
         wash, washing, lavation]
    2: garments or white goods that can be cleaned by laundering
       [syn: laundry, wash, washing, washables]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

53 Moby Thesaurus words for "washing":
   ablution, bear raid, bull raid, cleaning out, corner, corner in,
   douche, douching, elution, elutriation, enema, flush, flushing,
   flushing out, irrigation, lap, lapping, lathering, laundering,
   laundry, lavabo, lavage, lavation, laving, manipulation, monopoly,
   mopping, mopping up, plash, raid, rigging, rinse, rinsing,
   scouring, scrub, scrubbing, scrubbing up, shampoo, slosh, soaping,
   splash, sponge, sponging, swabbing, swash, tubbing, wash,
   wash sale, washday, washing up, washout, washup, wiping up



Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary:

Washing
   (Mark 7:1-9). The Jews, like other Orientals, used their fingers
   when taking food, and therefore washed their hands before doing
   so, for the sake of cleanliness. Here the reference is to the
   ablutions prescribed by tradition, according to which "the
   disciples ought to have gone down to the side of the lake,
   washed their hands thoroughly, 'rubbing the fist of one hand in
   the hollow of the other, then placed the ten finger-tips
   together, holding the hands up, so that any surplus water might
   flow down to the elbow, and thence to the ground.'" To neglect
   to do this had come to be regarded as a great sin, a sin equal
   to the breach of any of the ten commandments. Moses had
   commanded washings oft, but always for some definite cause; but
   the Jews multiplied the legal observance till they formed a
   large body of precepts. To such precepts about ceremonial
   washing Mark here refers. (See ABLUTION.)