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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 4.8
Make someone feel very weak and tired
  • phrasal verb
  • /wɔʃ aʊt/
  • Informal
translation icon : agotar
  • The CAA kinda frowns on that, so they washed him out.
  • feel washed out

Examples

  • They would leave dead tired and washed out.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • Well, he went to be a fighter pilot, but they washed him out.

    Fortress (2012)

  • Dead tired and washed out.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • I was completely washed out yesterday.

    Blog text (3)

  • I feel like for me it's washing me out a little bit, but I'm OK with that.

  • They were washed out when they left.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • It was in that first week that nearly all the arrogance was washed out of me (not all of it, but close).

    Blog text (12)

  • She found a blue calico print dress in the trunk and, although the garment would definitely be too short for her, she figured she could squeeze into it and thus have something to wear while she washed out her own clothes.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • Adrenaline had pumped through her veins for a long time and was beginning now to wane, and Corinne knew that when it did, if she wasn't safely unconscious, she would be washed out, despairing.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • After a long day at work, I felt completely washed out and ready for bed.

Synonyms

to exhaust
vsto wash out
194 3.2

To make someone very tired

saps energy heavily without implying total depletion
to drain
vsto wash out
189 3.4

To slowly use up energy, money, or other resources

focuses specifically on causing severe tiredness or loss of vitality
to wear down
vsto wash out
27 4.1

Slowly make a person or thing weaker by repeated pressure

saps energy directly rather than reducing effectiveness gradually
to wear out
vsto wash out
19 2.7

To make a person very tired or a thing stop working by using it too much

saps energy but focuses on human tiredness rather than object breakdown
to tire out
vsto wash out
10 2.1

To make a person very tired by using up their energy

saps energy but does not require long duration
to tucker
vsto wash out
  • Informal
8 9.4

To make someone very tired

is the neutral term used to describe severe sapping of energy
to bleed dry
vsto wash out
  • Informal
1 7.3

Use up all a person's money or other resources

saps energy severely but does not imply complete removal
to stultify
vsto wash out
  • Formal
1 9.8

Make someone or something lose energy and stop working well

saps physical vitality more than causing mental dullness
to exsanguinate
vsto wash out
1 9.9

To make something weak by taking away what it needs

targets human tiredness and energy rather than total resource loss
to leach energy
vsto wash out
  • UK
7.4

To slowly take away energy and interest from people

saps physical vitality more strongly than slow loss of enthusiasm

Antonyms

to energize
  • US
65 3.7

To make someone feel more active and alert

to revitalize
  • US
45 4.8

To give new life and energy to something

How Tired

to exhaust
194 3.2
to wash out
  • Informal
1 4.8
to drain
189 3.4
to tire
23 1.0

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 meaning to make someone very weak comes from the image of strength being washed out like color from cloth, leaving a person feeling weak and spent. So it means 'to drain someone's energy'.