Wash Your Hands of (Someone or Something)

Meaning of Idiom ‘Wash Your (or one’s) Hands Of (Someone Or Something)

To wash your hands of someone or something means to refuse to accept responsibility for it or to disassociate yourself from it; to renounce something or someone; to disavow something; to no longer want to be involved with someone or in something; to end all involvement with someone or something. 1Heacock, Paul. Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms]. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2010.,2Kirkpatrick, Elizabeth M. The Wordsworth Dictionary of Idioms. Ware: Wordsworth, 1995.,3Ammer, Christine. American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.,4Brenner, Gail. Webster’s New World American Idioms Handbook. John Wiley & Sons, 2011.

Sometimes the preposition ‘of’ is omitted, i.e. “I wash my hands.”

A similar idiom is ‘have nothing to do with (someone or something).’

Sentence Examples

“I can no longer help you if you continue to abuse drugs. Unless you get help, I will have to wash my hands of you.”

“I’ve had enough of his lies. I wash my hands of him.”

“They insist on using deceitful schemes in running their business. I wash my hands of this company.”

“I will not be associated with such unsafe practices. I wash my hands of this project.”

“I have no sympathy for any of you feculent maggots, and no more patience to pretend otherwise. Gentlemen, I wash my hands of this weirdness.” — Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007)

“I led and my son followed. He died in my arms. After that, I washed my hands of England and the empire and the legend of Allan-bloody-Quatermain.” — The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)

“I’ve had enough of this sordidness, and I wanna go home. And I wanna wash my hands, and I wanna forget all about you and Archbishop Rushman.” — Primal Fear (1996)

“You, on the other hand, were born with everything and from it, fashioned nothing. As of tonight, I wash my hands of you.” — Kate & Leopold (2001)

“Dr. Morbius, I require landing coordinates.” “Very well, but I wash my hands of all responsibility.” —  Forbidden Planet (1956)

“So, let me tell you, I am washing my hands of your emotional problems. I’m just a visitor with a limited day pass from here on in.” — Because I Said So (2007)

Origin

The idiom ‘wash one’s hands of something’ comes from the Bible, Matthew 27:24, where Pontius Pilate washes his hands before having Jesus be put to death, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this just person.” 5Ammer, Christine. American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013. This action was meant to symbolically wash away the sin that the shedding of blood signified and, more practically, to cleanse him of responsibility, as he allowed the gathered crowd to decide the fate of Jesus.

Acts of ablution, or the washing of hands in religious rites, is an ancient practice, used to purify a person symbolically. Sometimes, the washing of other body parts or the entire body was practiced.

More ‘Hand’ Idioms