awash

adj — 2 senses

awash

adj

/əˈwɒʃ/

Etymology From a- + wash.

1

Washed by the waves or tide (of a rock or strip of shore, or of an anchor, etc., when flush with the surface of the water, so that the waves break over it); covered with water.

  • The former rock is awash at low water […]1835, Martin White, Sailing Directions for the English Channel, London: The Hydrographic Office, Admiralty, page 26:
  • The deck was continually awash with the sea which came inboard over the rail and through the scuppers.1904, Jack London, chapter 39, in The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC, page 319:
1 more example
  • but the river’s in flood / and the roads are awash / and the bridges break up / in the panic of loss.1979, Leonard Cohen, “Ballad of the Absent Mare”, in Recent Songs:
2

Broadly Covered, overspread (with or in something).

  • Tonight, his mind was awash with visions:1953, James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain, New York, N.Y.: Knopf, →OCLC, part 2 (The Prayers of the Saints), page 80:
  • In the Sumerian language the word for water also means semen, and since Enki is the god of water, he is therefore the god of semen. In this ode to the Great Father, the land of the Sumerians is literally awash with semen.1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 162:
4 more examples
  • 2005, Chris Ramirez, 2nd find excites museum diggers," The Arizona Republic, 26 Aug, The Valley landscape was more awash with greenery some 11,000 years ago.
  • Bulgaria's only attacking weapon was the wayward shooting of Martin Petrov, whereas England's attacking options were awash with movement in the shape of Rooney, Young and Walcott.2011 September 2, Phil McNulty, “Bulgaria 0-3 England”, in BBC:
  • […] the whole country’s awash in guns and Bibles,2019, Lucy Ellmann, Ducks, Newburyport, Galley Beggar Press:
  • THE LIQUID SAMURAI ROSE, AWASH IN THE MIRROR'S MAGIC.2019 December 10, Yacht Club Games, "Story" (Liquid Samurai), in Shovel Knight Showdown (version 4.1), Nintendo Switch, scene: opening
Synonyms
aslosh

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.