# Yet Another Idiom Origin Question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-idiom-origin-question/117058>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 2, 2002, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-idiom-origin-question/117058 "2002-07-02T17:18:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![SandWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8491ac/32.png) [@SandWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SandWriter)\
**Post date:** [July 2, 2002, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-idiom-origin-question/117058/1 "2002-07-02T17:18:16Z")

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Hey All,

I was selling stuff on eBay and one item went for a real low price, so low that I ‘took a bath’ on that auction. I broke even on another auction, ‘it was a wash.’ And on another auction I made a big profit, ‘I really cleaned up.’

And then I was wondering why…

Take a bath = losing money  
it’s a wash = breaking even  
cleaning up = making money

Cause if you are really taking a bath, aren’t you also cleaning up by washing yourself?

What’s the straight dope?  
-Sandwriter, Watertown Mass.

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**Author:** ![robcaro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@robcaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robcaro)\
**Post date:** [July 2, 2002, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-idiom-origin-question/117058/2 "2002-07-02T17:41:07Z")

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These are merely slang expressions and are not to be taken literally. 🙂

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**Author:** ![Duck\_Hook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/91b2a8/32.png) [@Duck\_Hook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Hook)\
**Post date:** [July 2, 2002, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-idiom-origin-question/117058/3 "2002-07-02T18:48:08Z")

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Although your particular idioms are not listed here, this interesting website is dedicated to giving such meanings and origins.

[http://www.pride-unlimited.com/probono/idioms1.html#a](http://www.pride-unlimited.com/probono/idioms1.html#a)

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**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\
**Post date:** [July 2, 2002, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-idiom-origin-question/117058/4 "2002-07-02T20:51:31Z")

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The first and last expressions are mirror images of each other. To “take a bath” is old gambling slang for “to get cleaned out,” or to have someone “clean up on” you.

I’m not familiar with this meaning of “it’s a wash.” To me, it’s short for “washout,” a total failure; from slang for a roadbed or railbed that’s been washed away by flooding. However, people do use it that way. It appears to refer to the act of “washing” away a debt.

The term for “coming out even” that I use is “it’s a push,” referring to a gambling result that returns the stake but no winnings.

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2002, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yet-another-idiom-origin-question/117058/5 "2002-07-03T02:46:47Z")

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It’s too hot to delve into this more than superficially.

**Wash** was used as early in print as 1859, but it was originally a phony sale between the seller and the buyer for nefarious purposes. But that was where it came from.

**To clean up** was used in 1867 to mean “a great profit; a windfall.” From the gold fields of California.

**To take a bath** is only cited from 1937, in gambling slang as was said earlier.

So, don’t make too much of the coincidences.