whitewashing
whitewashing Lexical Profile
whitewashing Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A deliberate attempt to conceal unpleasant or incriminating facts about a person, organization, or historical event in order to protect their reputation.
"Historians criticized the textbook for its blatant whitewashing of the colonial era's injustices."
The practice in the film and television industry of casting white actors in non-white roles or historically non-white characters.
"The studio faced widespread backlash over the whitewashing of the main character in the anime adaptation."
The act or process of painting walls, fences, or other surfaces with a mixture of lime and water to brighten or sanitize them.
"The spring maintenance included the annual whitewashing of the stone cottage walls."
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Formed as the verbal noun of 'whitewash', a late 16th-century compound of 'white' and 'wash'. Its figurative sense of concealing faults or giving a fair appearance to something corrupt draws on the biblical imagery of 'whited sepulchres' in Matthew 23:27.