Rinse

How to spell rinse

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce rinse

What does rinse mean?

1. verbTo wash something lightly with clean water to remove soap, dirt, or loose matter.
2. nounAn act of washing with clean water, or a liquid preparation used to treat or tint the hair.

Rinse in a sentence

• verb

  Remember to rinse the plates before stacking them in the dishwasher.

• noun

  A quick rinse under the tap removed most of the sand.

• verb

  After the dye sets, rinse the fabric until the water runs clear.

• noun

  She used a colour rinse to brighten her grey hair.

Where does rinse come from?

Language of origin: French

Rinse came into English in the late 1300s from the Old French verb rincer (earlier reincer), which meant to clean something by passing water over it. The deeper origin is debated, but the most widely accepted theory traces it back to the Latin recentare, meaning to make fresh or to refresh, built on recens, meaning fresh or recent (the same root that gives us the modern word recent). The idea behind the word has stayed remarkably stable for centuries: to flush away soap, dirt, or loose particles with clean water. The English spelling settled with the silent-looking 'in' followed by the soft 's' sound, which is why writers sometimes hesitate over whether it ends in 'se' or 'ce'. Because its origin is genuinely uncertain at the earliest stage, etymologists treat the Latin recentare link as probable rather than proven.

How the word is built

• rinse (single root, no affixes; from Old French rincer)