whitewashing
Americannoun
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the act or process of whitening with whitewash.
The picket fence could use a few minor repairs, but mostly it needs a good whitewashing.
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an instance or methodical practice of covering up or glossing over the faults or errors of someone or something.
Behind her assurances that all the coffee was fair-trade, there always lurked the possibility of some creative whitewashing.
We would have known about this high-level corruption much sooner if it weren’t for the carefully orchestrated whitewashing within the department.
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the casting of a white actor to play a character of color in a film, television show, or play.
Whitewashing has a long tradition in the history of Hollywood casting.
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in a representation of a historical era or event, the focus on a member or members of the dominant cultural group rather than the minority individual or group whose presence would be more historically accurate.
The documentarian's whitewashing preserves the false notion that our race to the moon was won only on the shoulders of white heterosexual men.
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Etymology
Origin of whitewashing
First recorded in 1650–60 whitewashing for def. 1; 1760–70 whitewashing for def. 2; 2005–10 whitewashing for def. 3a; 1995–2000 whitewashing for def. 3b; whitewash ( def. ) + -ing 1 ( def. )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The whitewashing of the wall has also been questioned by some who pointed out that maybe this approach was missing the point.
From BBC • Jan. 9, 2026
When the New York Times profiled Ms. Rodríguez as a “moderate,” a backlash erupted: Thousands on X ridiculed the paper for whitewashing her bloodstained record.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 6, 2026
And I agree with Coates when he criticized Klein for whitewashing Charlie Kirk’s legacy, and agree that while we should not celebrate a person’s death, we also shouldn’t paper over who they were in life.
From Slate • Oct. 6, 2025
The Times’ Berlin correspondent Guido Enderis specialized in “puffy profiles of leading Nazis” while whitewashing the regime’s more evil aspects in the mid-1930s.
From Salon • Feb. 23, 2024
Some convicts were whitewashing stones along the edge of a pathway that came toward the gate near where he stood.
From "Sounder" by William H. Armstrong
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
