How to Use whitewash in a Sentence

whitewash

1 of 2 verb
  • Sport must never be used to whitewash blood.
    Benjamin Weinthal, FOXNews.com, 29 Jan. 2026
  • The brick wall, which runs the length of the loft, was gently whitewashed.
    Kristen Flanagan, House Beautiful, 27 Feb. 2023
  • But there’s no whitewashing its flaws.
    Rebeccah Heinrichs, Foreign Affairs, 15 Dec. 2025
  • Use white acrylic paint mixed with water to whitewash the wood, then set it aside to dry.
    Emily Vanschmus, Better Homes & Gardens, 26 May 2021
  • Please do not try to whitewash the history of this site.
    Drew Pittock, USA Today, 3 June 2026
  • Protect them with shade or by whitewashing the bark.
    Karen Brewer Grossman, Southern Living, 17 Apr. 2026
  • Sleek chrome furniture, a chef-grade kitchen, and whitewashed walls bring light in.
    Elly Leavitt, Vogue, 28 Jan. 2026
  • That’s not a cop-out or whitewash — or colorwash — of the issue.
    Clarence Page, chicagotribune.com, 30 Apr. 2021
  • Walls would be whitewashed, and carpets would be removed and beaten.
    Derrick Bryson Taylor, New York Times, 11 Apr. 2023
  • State school board votes to whitewash racial history over teaching truth.
    J.d. Crowe | [email protected], al, 15 Oct. 2021
  • So, how did Democrats end up whitewashing their rainbow coalition?
    Lisa Lerer, New York Times, 4 Dec. 2019
  • It’s crafted from coils of abaca, a durable fiber made from banana leaf stems, and whitewashed for a bright, clean finish.
    Maggie Horton, PEOPLE, 26 Nov. 2025
  • So what food crimes were these celebs whitewashing with their presence at Live Más Live?
    Bethy Squires, Vulture, 13 Mar. 2026
  • Then, there began a campaign to whitewash history, starting at the top.
    New York Times, 31 July 2021
  • This is, in fact, another act of whitewashing (no surprises there).
    Jennifer Ford, Essence, 24 July 2019
  • The structure, which was unheated, with broken windows and whitewashed stone walls, had once been a grain merchant’s store.
    Rebecca Mead, New Yorker, 9 Feb. 2026
  • Three hundred feet to the west is West Brother, a low rocky isle whitewashed with bird poop where the harbor seals like to hang.
    Sarah Feldberg, SFChronicle.com, 12 Sep. 2019
  • By then, investigators had checked Guthrie’s flat, whitewashed roof and probed her septic tank with a long pole.
    Paige Williams, New Yorker, 14 Feb. 2026
  • During the renovation, the red-brick exterior was whitewashed to give it a more coastal feel.
    Michelle Matthews | [email protected], al, 14 Jan. 2020
  • The only difference is that academics and our cultural stewards have whitewashed one of them.
    David Harsanyi, National Review, 26 Feb. 2020
  • Tiananmen is heavily censored on the mainland, where Beijing has long sought to whitewash the events of that day.
    NBC News, 4 June 2021
  • But some historians warn that a blanket apology could whitewash the fascist pasts of some who were rounded up.
    Washington Post, 27 May 2021
  • Network television begin to feel, frankly, whitewashed.
    Senior Editor, MSNBC Newsweek, 3 Dec. 2025
  • When the piece closes on July 24, the walls will be whitewashed again for the next exhibition.
    Roger Catlin, Smithsonian, 13 June 2019
  • Even if Cuellar falls, Azerbaijan still has other friends willing to whitewash its regime.
    Casey Michel, The New Republic, 26 Jan. 2022
  • Canonically, Heathcliff was not white so casting him as such is, in fact, whitewashing.
    Kathleen Newman-Bremang, Refinery29, 12 Feb. 2026
  • Of course, the latter two have been cemented as some of the worst cases of whitewashing in Hollywood.
    Gabe Bergado, Teen Vogue, 7 Jan. 2019
  • Their articles challenge the party’s account of key crises in its history, filling in events that have been whitewashed.
    Ian Johnson, Foreign Affairs, 22 Aug. 2023
  • To whitewash the tree, combine equal parts of white latex paint with water, and brush the mixture on branches or areas of the trunk that are exposed to the sun.
    Karen Brewer Grossman, Southern Living, 9 Apr. 2026
  • To whitewash the tree, combine equal parts of white latex paint with water, and brush the mixture on branches or areas of the trunk that are exposed to the sun.
    Karen Brewer Grossman, Southern Living, 17 Dec. 2025

whitewash

2 of 2 noun
  • The walls are cracked, and their whitewash has faded to gray.
    Literary Hub, 4 Mar. 2026
  • On the other hand, there is concern that the probe could end up as a whitewash.
    Pamela Constable, Washington Post, 29 Apr. 2017
  • The rest of this summer dud is just a pale and pandering whitewash.
    Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune, 22 June 2023
  • As the game threatened to become a whitewash, the visitors went off-piste.
    SI.com, 19 Sep. 2017
  • House Democrats heard the criticism and are eager for a whitewash.
    The Editorial Board, WSJ, 7 Oct. 2021
  • First, the address is scribbled on the wall, top center, with chalk or perhaps whitewash.
    Paul Dorpat, The Seattle Times, 23 Aug. 2017
  • González was on the brink of unconsciousness when a rescue jet ski swooped in to save him from the swirling whitewash.
    Kade Krichko, Outside Online, 22 Nov. 2020
  • The cuts have led opponents to accuse Johnson of a whitewash.
    Jill Lawless, Anchorage Daily News, 31 Jan. 2022
  • This agreement, coupled with a new whitewash tax amnesty, could help the state rake in billions of dollars in revenue.
    Agustino Fontevecchia, Forbes, 27 Dec. 2022
  • Some in the public, and even one member of the committee, declared the report a whitewash.
    Kenneth C. Barnes, Arkansas Online, 23 Jan. 2023
  • Dating to around 1250, the small church was built of boulders and has since been covered with whitewash.
    Katherine Lagrave, AFAR Media, 16 Sep. 2025
  • Indians pitchers combined for a no-hitter in a whitewash over the Bears.
    miamiherald, 14 May 2017
  • The failure of the 11th-grade framework to mention that crucial basic fact is an epic whitewash.
    Lance Izumi, Orange County Register, 8 June 2017
  • Limewash, a breathable and porous coating, adds texture and patina to brick, while whitewash is a slightly more opaque option.
    Sharon Greenthal, Better Homes & Gardens, 1 Aug. 2023
  • Where another architect might have finessed the multiple runs of stairs, Laplace did nothing but give the treads a good whitewash.
    WSJ, 24 Apr. 2021
  • People go to the cemetery to paint the tombs of their relatives with whitewash (encalado) and decorate them with flowers.
    Françoise Mouly, The New Yorker, 24 Oct. 2022
  • The warmth offsets the cool pink-gray undertones from the whitewash, giving the room a welcoming, cocooning quality.
    Sophie Flaxman, Better Homes & Gardens, 2 July 2026
  • Christmas tree collars are an alternative to tree skirts for hiding your tree's base, and this one in whitewash is the perfect finish for a white Christmas tree.
    Arricca Elin Sansone, Woman's Day, 5 Dec. 2022
  • The bad news for Michigan State, however, is their most recent outing two weeks ago was a whitewash at the hands of Wisconsin.
    Eddie Timanus, USA TODAY, 20 Sep. 2019
  • Washington was shut out for the second straight game, although Wednesday’s whitewash was the back end of a seven-inning doubleheader.
    Greg Beacham, ajc, 10 Apr. 2021
  • When day was done, Krejci had set up three goals, his name on half of the Bruins’ bounty in a 6-0 whitewash of the Flyers.
    Kevin Paul Dupont, BostonGlobe.com, 17 Jan. 2023
  • Portland takes 4 games and outscores Spokane 30-9, being dominant without getting the whitewash.
    Dylan Bumbarger, oregonlive, 16 Feb. 2022
  • But Milton did preside over the Vols’ whitewash of Vanderbilt in the regular-season finale.
    Eddie Timanus, USA TODAY, 15 Dec. 2022
  • After having spent a whole lot of time in the South, there’s just such a tremendous pride about their culture and their heritage, their history, that to not have it in the movie felt to us like a bit of a whitewash.
    Ben Flanagan | [email protected], al, 5 July 2022
  • Eleven of the men were put on trial behind closed doors in Saudi Arabia, but the proceedings in Riyadh have been widely criticized as a whitewash.
    Fox News, 4 July 2020
  • London is the capital of pristine facades, often painted in wedding-cake shades of cream or ivory; the city’s dominant aesthetic is a literal whitewash.
    Mark O’Connell, The New York Review of Books, 25 Apr. 2026
  • When high tide hit again late Tuesday afternoon, the crowds returned to the Wedge to watch the surfers tackle the massive waves again, beachgoers scrambling as whitewash flooded the shore.
    Laylan Connelly, Oc Register, 9 June 2026
  • This after the Bruins lost again Saturday, a 4-0 whitewash by the Rangers at the Garden, the second time in four games they were shut out.
    Kevin Paul Dupont, BostonGlobe.com, 15 Mar. 2021
  • Mann was coming off a 26-save performance in earning his fifth shutout of the season, a 4-0 whitewash of Ohio State in Sunday’s first round.
    John Fineran, Detroit Free Press, 16 Mar. 2021
  • The immediate priority is to avoid what would be a third Ashes 5-0 whitewash defeat in six tours Down Under.
    Tim Spiers, New York Times, 21 Dec. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'whitewash.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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