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Glite Dictionary
🧼 To clean thoroughly 🌊 To erode away 🎨 To fade color ☔ To cancel by rain 😩 To exhaust
to wash out

to wash out

1 4.4
Cancel an outdoor event because of heavy rain
  • phrasal verb
  • /wɔʃ aʊt/
  • UK
translation icon : suspender
  • Heavy rains washed out NASCAR's marquee event for the first time in 54 runnings, pushing the race into a prime-time Monday night slot.
  • washed out by rain

Examples

  • After several storms in a row, the weekend's outdoor concert was wash out due to inclement weather.

  • - Will it wash out, Elizabeth?

    Sabrina (1954)

  • The road had just been opened for the season, but in places it was still washed out, so she drove slowly, the way her uncle had, and rolled down her window.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • Everyone cries when a summer beach fun place gets washed out like sand castles in the tide.

    Blog text (25)

  • The heavy rain caused the game to be wash out, disappointing many fans.

  • If it keeps raining, our picnic plans will be wash out again this summer.

Synonyms

to rain out
vsto wash out
  • US
4 4.6

To cancel an event like a game or concert because of rain

focuses on the event being cancelled rather than the cause

Antonyms

to proceed
763 3.0

Begin or continue an action after a pause, often as planned

to carry on
253 2.7

To continue doing something after an interruption or when it is difficult

How Disrupted

to abandon
773 3.1
to wash out
  • UK
1 4.4
to interrupt
909 2.5
to delay
562 1.4

Surface Forms

wash out infinitive
washed out past
washed out past participle
washing out present participle
washes out third person singular

Morphology

wash + out

There is a loose, metaphorical link between 'wash' (to remove/clean) + 'out' (completely/away) suggesting depletion or removal, so a learner might sense some loss meaning. However, the specific sense 'to make someone very weak or tired' is metaphorical, the verb has multiple senses (cancelled, fail, exhaust), and the exact exhaustion meaning is not fully predictable for a B1 learner without prior exposure.

Etymology

Wash out for an event comes from rain that soaks and muddies a place, washing the field or ground out and making it unusable, so people must cancel the activity. That's why it means 'to cancel because of rain'.