to wash down
15
4.4
- phrasal verb
- /wɔʃ daʊn/
:
tragar
- When you finish that you can wash it down with a piece of cake.
- washing down pills
- washed it down with coffee
- washed it down with beer
And then if you wash it down with a nice ice gold Coke or Pepsi, you're going to be spiking your blood sugar off the charts, which is going to raise your blood pressure.
- And then if you wash it down with a nice ice gold Coke or Pepsi, you're going to be spiking your blood sugar off the charts, which is going to raise your blood pressure.
- We're not having midnight snacks of, I don't know, ho ho's washed down with, with, you know, a sugary drink That's, that's within your capability.
- And then there's this like other sort of like tartar sausage crunch to the Russian and the slaw, wash it down with the celery.
Examples
-
I washed mine down with two cans of O'Doul's, and Clay had his usual Pepsi.
Fiction book (2002) -
Afterwards, we sat in a small cafe and ate cherries jubilee and zabaglione, washed down with glasses of zinfandel.
Fiction book (1994) -
-Well, then, some wine to wash it down.
-
Oh, sure, wash it down with a bottle of beer.
-
Have some soup and wash it down.
-
That's something to wash it down with.
-
A martini to wash down a pill.
-
Arnie took a long pull on his bottle of Anchor Steam to wash it down.
Fiction book (1996) -
We giggled about that, then each took out a green pill and washed it down with the last of our Cokes.
Fiction book (1994) -
After the spicy curry, I like to wash down it with a cold glass of water.
Synonyms
295
1.0
To make food or drink move from the mouth into the stomach
26
6.5
Try to get rid of a bad feeling by using something else, for example drinking
22
5.4
Eat or drink something quickly and completely
10
4.4
To manage to swallow food or medicine when it is hard
6
3.1
To eat or drink something quickly without stopping
How Quickly
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to drink something in order to help swallow food' is directly and imageably derived from 'wash' (flowing liquid) + 'down' (movement to a lower place): the drink literally 'washes' the food down the throat, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would likely infer the sense. The secondary metaphorical sense of soothing or lessening with a drink is an obvious extension of the same image and is cross-linguistically common, supporting a transparent classification.
Etymology
Wash down comes from the clear picture of using a drink to 'wash' food 'down' your throat, like rinsing a dry bite with water. That's why it means 'to swallow something with a drink' or 'to soothe or lessen something with a drink'.