wash

a wash

A situation in which gains and losses are considered to be equal or offset; an outcome of negligible advantages or disadvantages. I'll pay the Internet bill if you'll pay the electricity bill, and then we'll just call it a wash. We both won a significant number of matches against each other, so we just called it a wash in the end. The product sold moderately well, but we spent so much on development and marketing that it ended up being a wash.

See also: wash

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

wash

1. in. to be believed. (As if untruth were a stain that will not come out in the wash.) That’ll never wash! It’s totally unbelievable.

2. n. a drink that follows a previous drink; a chaser. Can I have a wash with this, bartender?

3. n. the almost simultaneous sale and purchase of the same stock, usually to make the stock appear to be trading actively. (Securities markets. The practice is illegal. Tax loss selling must be done in such a way to avoid appearing to be a wash.) I sold the stock and couldn’t buy it back for thirty days to avoid an illegal wash.

4. n. a whitewash or covering up (of a problem). What the administration presented was not an explanation but a wash.

McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.