How to Use whitewash in a Sentence

whitewash

1 of 2 verb
  • The brick wall, which runs the length of the loft, was gently whitewashed.
    Kristen Flanagan, House Beautiful, 27 Feb. 2023
  • Use white acrylic paint mixed with water to whitewash the wood, then set it aside to dry.
    Emily Vanschmus, Better Homes & Gardens, 26 May 2021
  • That’s not a cop-out or whitewash — or colorwash — of the issue.
    Clarence Page, chicagotribune.com, 30 Apr. 2021
  • By Tuesday morning, the wall had been whitewashed again.
    Ivana Kottasová, CNN, 8 Aug. 2023
  • Three hundred feet to the west is West Brother, a low rocky isle whitewashed with bird poop where the harbor seals like to hang.
    Sarah Feldberg, SFChronicle.com, 12 Sep. 2019
  • When the piece closes on July 24, the walls will be whitewashed again for the next exhibition.
    Roger Catlin, Smithsonian, 13 June 2019
  • Even in South Africa, the way that most people have understood the end of apartheid has been very much whitewashed and simplified.
    Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 19 Oct. 2023
  • Passan’s point is, to exclude Bonds from the HOF is to whitewash history.
    Paul Daugherty, The Enquirer, 26 Jan. 2022
  • Walls would be whitewashed, and carpets would be removed and beaten.
    Derrick Bryson Taylor, New York Times, 11 Apr. 2023
  • And while the world of lucha libre does look like a seedy business, it also feels whitewashed in this arty production.
    Pat Padua, Washington Post, 13 Sep. 2023
  • And once again we are implored to use the story of redemption to whitewash the story of racial injustice.
    Marina Del Rios, STAT, 26 Oct. 2022
  • Tiananmen is heavily censored on the mainland, where Beijing has long sought to whitewash the events of that day.
    NBC News, 4 June 2021
  • The buildings were squat and whitewashed, with colorful wooden doors; the town’s main church kept watch over a square that, I was told, comes alive on market days.
    Sarah Souli, Travel + Leisure, 4 June 2023
  • Of course, the latter two have been cemented as some of the worst cases of whitewashing in Hollywood.
    Gabe Bergado, Teen Vogue, 7 Jan. 2019
  • State school board votes to whitewash racial history over teaching truth.
    J.d. Crowe | Jdcrowe@al.com, al, 15 Oct. 2021
  • Its base tends to believe the nonsense that motivated that mob to storm the Capitol; no wonder the GOP wants to whitewash and forget that event.
    Kate Aronoff, The New Republic, 4 Aug. 2021
  • China is waging an information war to whitewash its handling of the virus and impugn the U.S.
    The Editorial Board, WSJ, 22 Mar. 2020
  • Then, there began a campaign to whitewash history, starting at the top.
    New York Times, 31 July 2021
  • Douglass and Maceo achieved greatness in the pursuit of these universal ideals and could not be eclipsed by those seeking to whitewash Black genius.
    Griffin Black, Scientific American, 12 Oct. 2020
  • The moon will be nearly full in the wee hours of Wednesday, and the abundance of lunar light is going to whitewash the sky, camouflaging all but the brighter meteors.
    Mike Lynch, Twin Cities, 11 Aug. 2019
  • During the renovation, the red-brick exterior was whitewashed to give it a more coastal feel.
    Michelle Matthews | Mmatthews@al.com, al, 14 Jan. 2020
  • So, how did Democrats end up whitewashing their rainbow coalition?
    Lisa Lerer, New York Times, 4 Dec. 2019
  • On that day, Biden touched down in Jeddah not just to grovel in front of Saudi Arabia’s corrupt head of state, but to whitewash his decrepit actions.
    Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 12 Oct. 2022
  • At Chris Bianco’s whitewashed trattoria, chef Cassie Shortino makes some of the best fresh pasta in town.
    Dominic Armato, azcentral, 6 May 2020
  • Sewage canals are choked with trash, but the pavement is free of it; walls are whitewashed and feature graffiti art commissioned by Cherizier.
    Jason Motlagh, Rolling Stone, 26 Nov. 2023
  • Democrats shot back that Republicans were trying to whitewash the events of January 6.
    Jeremy Herb, CNN, 15 June 2021
  • Legislation that wants to do away with CRT is in my view whitewashing history and pushes a one-sided view to be taught in schools.
    Charlotte Observer, 8 Feb. 2024
  • This is a far cry from the image many people have of street artists—of lone figures, spray cans aloft, furtively painting in the dead of night only to have cleaning crews whitewash their piece the next morning.
    Suhita Shirodkar, Wired, 31 Jan. 2022
  • There was no insidious plot by the Indianapolis Colts to whitewash Andrew Luck from your hearts and minds.
    Jim Ayello, The Indianapolis Star, 20 Oct. 2020
  • Guns became a common sight around the circle, and White defenders of Lee sometimes showed up at night to taunt the protesters or to whitewash the graffiti.
    Washington Post, 11 Dec. 2021
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whitewash

2 of 2 noun
  • This failed to convince many, and looked like a whitewash.
    David Hambling, Forbes, 25 June 2021
  • On the other hand, there is concern that the probe could end up as a whitewash.
    Pamela Constable, Washington Post, 29 Apr. 2017
  • The ceiling here is bead board finished with a whitewash.
    Richard A. Marini, San Antonio Express-News, 27 Sep. 2021
  • The rest of this summer dud is just a pale and pandering whitewash.
    Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune, 22 June 2023
  • While the GOP seeks to tilt elections, some of its members are pressing ahead with a whitewash of the 2020 contest.
    Stephen Collinson, CNN, 2 June 2021
  • González was on the brink of unconsciousness when a rescue jet ski swooped in to save him from the swirling whitewash.
    Kade Krichko, Outside Online, 22 Nov. 2020
  • House Democrats heard the criticism and are eager for a whitewash.
    The Editorial Board, WSJ, 7 Oct. 2021
  • As the game threatened to become a whitewash, the visitors went off-piste.
    SI.com, 19 Sep. 2017
  • This was a whitewash in a medium game, the Buckeyes outcoached from start to finish.
    Doug Lesmerises, cleveland.com, 4 Nov. 2017
  • No whitewash from the Pentagon is going to change that.
    CBS News, 2 July 2023
  • Some in the public, and even one member of the committee, declared the report a whitewash.
    Kenneth C. Barnes, Arkansas Online, 23 Jan. 2023
  • First, the address is scribbled on the wall, top center, with chalk or perhaps whitewash.
    Paul Dorpat, The Seattle Times, 23 Aug. 2017
  • The failure of the 11th-grade framework to mention that crucial basic fact is an epic whitewash.
    Lance Izumi, Orange County Register, 8 June 2017
  • The cuts have led opponents to accuse Johnson of a whitewash.
    Jill Lawless, Anchorage Daily News, 31 Jan. 2022
  • When day was done, Krejci had set up three goals, his name on half of the Bruins’ bounty in a 6-0 whitewash of the Flyers.
    Kevin Paul Dupont, BostonGlobe.com, 17 Jan. 2023
  • This after the Bruins lost again Saturday, a 4-0 whitewash by the Rangers at the Garden, the second time in four games they were shut out.
    Kevin Paul Dupont, BostonGlobe.com, 15 Mar. 2021
  • This agreement, coupled with a new whitewash tax amnesty, could help the state rake in billions of dollars in revenue.
    Agustino Fontevecchia, Forbes, 27 Dec. 2022
  • But the public-facing image is a portrait in whitewash.
    New York Times, 8 June 2022
  • Mann was coming off a 26-save performance in earning his fifth shutout of the season, a 4-0 whitewash of Ohio State in Sunday’s first round.
    John Fineran, Detroit Free Press, 16 Mar. 2021
  • Indians pitchers combined for a no-hitter in a whitewash over the Bears.
    miamiherald, 14 May 2017
  • There was no effort to rewrite, or whitewash, what happened.
    Michael S. Rosenwald, Washington Post, 19 May 2018
  • The bad news for Michigan State, however, is their most recent outing two weeks ago was a whitewash at the hands of Wisconsin.
    Eddie Timanus, USA TODAY, 20 Sep. 2019
  • England have been in this exact same predicament three of the last four Ashes tours with only the flattest of pitches in the MCG four years ago saving them from a whitewash.
    Tristan Lavalette, Forbes, 28 Dec. 2021
  • After having spent a whole lot of time in the South, there’s just such a tremendous pride about their culture and their heritage, their history, that to not have it in the movie felt to us like a bit of a whitewash.
    Ben Flanagan | Bflanagan@al.com, al, 5 July 2022
  • Where another architect might have finessed the multiple runs of stairs, Laplace did nothing but give the treads a good whitewash.
    WSJ, 24 Apr. 2021
  • Eleven of the men were put on trial behind closed doors in Saudi Arabia, but the proceedings in Riyadh have been widely criticized as a whitewash.
    Fox News, 4 July 2020
  • Judge Laurence J. Rittenband called the report a whitewash.
    Kevin Tampone, OregonLive.com, 10 June 2017
  • City got off to the dream start on the opening weekend of the season, scoring five away from home in a whitewash against former manager Manuel Pellegrini's West Ham.
    SI.com, 15 Aug. 2019
  • Christmas tree collars are an alternative to tree skirts for hiding your tree's base, and this one in whitewash is the perfect finish for a white Christmas tree.
    Arricca Elin Sansone, Woman's Day, 5 Dec. 2022
  • Limewash, a breathable and porous coating, adds texture and patina to brick, while whitewash is a slightly more opaque option.
    Sharon Greenthal, Better Homes & Gardens, 1 Aug. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'whitewash.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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