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Glite Dictionary
to wash one's hands of

to wash one's hands of

8 6.7
Stop being involved and refuse to take responsibility for someone or something
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : desentenderse de
  • After countless arguments, I decided to wash my hands of the entire project.
  • wash my hands of the whole
  • wash my hands of the whole affair
  • wash my hands of this whole thing

Examples

Synonyms

to wash one's hands
vsto wash one's hands of
  • Informal
3 6.3

Refuse to take the blame for a problem

includes ending involvement with a person or thing rather than only actions

Antonyms

to take responsibility
193 3.3

To admit you caused a problem and accept the blame

How Responsible

to wash one's hands of
  • Informal
8 6.7
to disengage
82 5.3
to abandon
773 3.1

Surface Forms

wash one's hands of infinitive
washed one's hands of past
washed one's hands of past participle
washing one's hands of present participle
washes one's hands of third person singular

Morphology

wash + one's + hands + of

The literal components ('wash', 'one's hands', 'of') evoke a physical cleansing that metaphorically maps onto removing involvement or responsibility, so there is a recognizable link between parts and the idiomatic meaning. However, the specific sense 'to stop being involved or accepting responsibility' depends on a conventionalized metaphor (and some cultural/Biblical background) and is not fully predictable from the words alone, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents may only partially infer the meaning without prior exposure.

Etymology

The idiom wash one's hands of may come from a famous story where a leader literally washed his hands to show he would not take responsibility. That's why today wash one's hands of means 'to stop being involved with' or 'to refuse responsibility'.