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Idiom of the Day

“Wash your hands” (of something/someone)

If

you say you are going to “wash your hands” of a bad situation, you are basically saying you are no longer going to care anymore about the situation. The situation or person is like dirt to you, and you are removing your feelings like you would wash your hands. This symbolic gesture comes from Pontus Pilate washing his hands during the crucifixion of Jesus - so this is a very old idiom reference!

Comments

  • ilham sanfour

    @Emad thanks

  • Rokaya رُقـيّـة

    @Emad thnx

  • Marwa

    @Emad thank u Emad!

  • Emad

    @Rokaya رُقـيّـة great!!

  • Emad

    @ilham sanfour good!

  • Emad

    @Morton good!

  • Emad

    @Hadeer Samir very good!

  • Emad

    @Marwa very good!

  • Emad

    @abier good!

  • Emad

    @Dudu very good!

  • Emad

    @Janet very good

  • Emad

    @Kem Mariam very good!

  • Emad

    @Goal0321 good Keep practicing the r sound

  • Emad

    @Puppetric good! Keep practicing

  • Rur

    @Scott Cecil Allen Thanks for the good point. To be honest I'm not really sure about Persian but in Kurdish when we say someone has washed her/his hand of her/him-self [life] we mean that they don't care about their life; they don't eat healthy and they are not happy... . Also when we say someone has washed his/her hand of someone else we mean that he/she isn't in touch with that person and doesn't want to contact them anymore. My mom use this idiom in Kurdish a lot 😄 however I have rarely heard it in Persian but I believe it still exist there too.

  • Scott Cecil Allen Lifetime VIP

    @Rur Very close. You would say, “I’m going to wash my hands _of this._ I can’t deal with the situation anymore.

  • Leslie

    So it's correct to say,"that's it, I'm gonna wash my hands, I can't deal with this situation anymore"?

  • Rur

    we use the exact same idiom in Kurdish and Persian. It comes from the same root/story I think. also comments are pretty interesting

  • Юлия

    The Russian language also has such an idiom.

  • Dina

    We have this idiom too

  • ilham sanfour

    I really have to wash my hand,from bad feeling.

  • Life

    We also have this Idiom in our culture.

  • Natália

    In portuguese we use the same expression

  • Umar Farooq

    👍

  • Umar Farooq

    Thank you for this wonderful help !

  • Umar Farooq

    Very clear and useful sir!

  • bachikkan

    Your post is so informative.

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