different between enamel vs whitewash

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??næm?l/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??næm?l/
• Rhymes: -æm?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English enamel, from Anglo-Norman enamailler, from en- (“in-”) + amailler (“to enamel”), variant of Old French esmailler (“to enamel”), from esmal (“enamel”), from Frankish *smalt, from Proto-Germanic *smaltijan? (“to smelt”). Compare German schmelzen, Danish smelte (“to melt”).

Noun

enamel (countable and uncountable, plural enamels)

1. An opaque, glassy coating baked onto metal or ceramic objects.
2. A coating that dries to a hard, glossy finish.
3. The hard covering on the exposed part of a tooth.
4. A cosmetic intended to give the appearance of a smooth and beautiful complexion.

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English enamelen, from the noun (see above).

Verb

enamel (third-person singular simple present enamels, present participle (US) enameling or (UK) enamelling, simple past and past participle (US) enameled or (UK) enamelled)

1. (transitive) To coat or decorate with enamel.
2. (transitive) To variegate with colours, as if with enamel.
3. (transitive) To form a glossy surface like enamel upon.

4. (transitive) To disguise with cosmetics, as a woman's complexion.

Derived terms

• enamelware
• porcelain enamel
• vitreous enamel

Translations

Anagrams

• Leeman, Manele, Melena, manele, melena

English

Etymology

white +? wash

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?wa?tw??/
• Rhymes: -a?tw??

Noun

whitewash (countable and uncountable, plural whitewashes)

1. A lime and water mixture for painting walls and fences bright white.
2. (sports) A complete victory or series of victories without suffering any losses; a clean sweep.
3. (obsolete) Any liquid composition for whitening something, such as a wash for making the skin fair.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Addison to this entry?)

4. (politics) A campaign to paper over unfavorable elements.

   Antonym: blackwash
5. (Britain, slang, obsolete) A glass of sherry as a finale, after drinking port and claret.
   • 1883, Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery (page lxxxiii)

     The bottles, however, were port bottles, but contained mushroom ketchup; and we can only say with regard to the 15s. sherry, that it would have made an admirable "whitewash," as Sheridan's glass is still sometimes called, […]

   • 1950, Wine & the Wine Trade (page 28)

     Sercial was also used as a sort of white-wash after the Port at dinner, those were the days when people had time to drink both Port and a White wash.

Derived terms

• whitewashing
• whitewashed

Translations

References

• (glass of sherry): 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary

Verb

whitewash (third-person singular simple present whitewashes, present participle whitewashing, simple past and past participle whitewashed)

1. To paint over with a lime and water mixture so as to brighten up a wall or fence.

2. (figuratively) To cover over errors or bad actions.

   Antonym: blackwash
3. (dated, transitive) To repay the financial debts of (another person).
4. (baseball, slang, dated, late, 19th century, archaic) To prevent a team from scoring any runs.
5. (US, Britain, slang) In various games, to defeat (an opponent) so that they fail to score, or to reach a certain point in the game; to skunk.
6. (derogatory) To make over (a person or character, a group, an event, etc) so that it is or seems more white, for example by applying makeup to a person, or by covering over the participation of people of color in an event and focusing on only white participation.

Derived terms

• bluewash
• brownwash
• cloudwash
• greenwash
• pinkwash

Translations

Further reading

• whitewash on Wikipedia.Wikipedia