washout

• wash-out

From wash out (verb).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈwɒʃaʊt/

washout (plural washouts)

1. An appliance designed to wash something out.

   The cistern was fitted with washouts and air-valves.

2. (biology, medicine) The cleaning of matter from a physiological system using a fluid.

   a bladder washout

3. (meteorology) The action whereby falling rainwater clean particles from the air.
4. A channel produced by the erosion of a relatively soft surface by a sudden gush of water; a breach in a road or railway caused by flooding.
5. (informal) A disappointment or total failure; an unsuccessful person.

   As an actor, he was a complete washout, so he went back to accounting.

6. A sporting fixture or other event that could not be completed because of rain.
   • 1939, The Railroad Telegrapher (volume 56, page 779)

     The Austin picnic was a washout, rained all day.

7. The aerodynamic effect of a small twist in the shape of an aircraft wing

• outwash