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Glite Dictionary
lather, rinse, repeat

lather, rinse, repeat

6.9
Do the same steps again, like washing hair with shampoo
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : aplicar, enjuagar, repetir
  • To thoroughly clean your hair, simply lather, rinse, repeat as needed.

Examples

  • Most shampoo instructions tell you to lather, rinse, repeat for best results.

  • Lather, rinse, repeat, as they say.

    Blog text (3)

  • When washing your hair, it is important to lather, rinse, repeat to ensure all products are removed.

How Repetitive

lather, rinse, repeat
  • Informal
6.9
to repeat
∞ 1.0
once
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

lather, rinse, repeat main

Morphology

lather, + rinse, + repeat

The phrase is a literal sequence of verbs (create foam/lather, wash out/rinse, then do again/repeat) whose combined procedural meaning is directly derivable from the constituent words. Its extended figurative use meaning 'do the same routine repeatedly' is also predictable from the sequence and the verb 'repeat', and this compositional instruction pattern is cross-linguistically common, so a learner who knows the constituents will understand it.

Etymology

The instruction lather, rinse, repeat comes from shampoo bottles: first you make foam (lather), then wash the foam out (rinse), and then do it again (repeat). That's why people use the phrase to talk about any simple set of steps you do again and again, like a 'routine'.