From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishwhitewashwhite‧wash1 /ˈwaɪtwɒʃ $ -wɒːʃ, -wɑːʃ/ noun 1 [singular, uncountable]HIDE/NOT SHOW a report or examination of events that hides the true facts about something so that the person who is responsible will not be punished SYN cover-up The official report into the cause of the fire was labeled a whitewash.2 [uncountable]DHH a white liquid mixture used especially for painting walls3 [countable]WIN an occasion in sport when one player or team defeats an opponent easily, without the opponent getting any points, goals etc
Examples from the Corpus
whitewash• A Greenpeace spokesperson described the official report on nuclear waste disposal as a whitewash.• If people don't like the message they can discuss it, but the report must not be seen as a whitewash.• This is not the time, with a whitewash to be avoided.• At least it will be no whitewash this season.• The Internal Investigations Division, a self-policing unit set up by Wilson, had become known as a pall of whitewash.• It is with Chaplin's personal life that Attenborough sloshes around the whitewash like a demented house-painter.• Doors and lintels were decorated with whitewash.whitewashwhitewash2 verb [transitive] 1 DHHto cover something with whitewash The walls were whitewashed and covered with bullfighting posters.2 HIDE/NOT SHOWto hide the true facts about a serious accident or illegal action Investigators are accused of whitewashing the governor’s record.3 BEAT/DEFEATto defeat an opponent in sport easily, without the opponent getting any points, goals etc→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
whitewash• Just past one bad curve, a small shrine has been erected, La Virgen surrounded by three concrete crosses recently whitewashed.• My first day on the works I was sent off to whitewash a shed all by myself.• Shop houses and ancestral halls were jumbled side by side with whitewashed cottages and churches.• Fields covered in snow would swallow up whitewashed farmhouses were it not for their black window frames.• The only hint of what goes on inside are the vultures that perch on its whitewashed outer walls.• Overlooking the walls were two whitewashed stone bastions.• Angry protesters whitewashed the offensive billboards.• Remember how they whitewashed the pigsties before they'd let their men sleep there?• A whitewashed verandah contained bags of wheat and well-oiled harnesses. 