# mindwash
## English
### Etymology

From mind +‎ wash.

### Noun

mindwash (countable and uncountable, plural mindwashes)
* Synonym of brainwash.
** 1985 October, Steve Rimmer, “Typesetting for Printer Owners”, in Computing Now!, volume 3, number 7, Moorshead Publications, page 9, column 1:There are six picas to an inch… you can work out what that would be in metric if you’re really into government mindwash.
** 1991, Tommy John, Dan Valenti, TJ: My Twenty-six Years in Baseball, Bantam Books, →ISBN, page 139:But if you say to somebody long enough that they can’t play, it becomes a mindwash.
** 1993, FringeWare Review, number 2, →ISSN, pages 2:37 and 2:47:Please recall from last issue’s “Cypherpunx” story how that implies a bold step away from our current mess of national sovereignties, megacorp slaveowners, and mainstream media mindwash. […] Crafted from recycled electronic scraps, blinking LED circuits, see-thru plastic mesh, sunglasses and velcro, these masks might help the wearer to perceive beyond the media mindwash.
** 2001 April 14, Nick Lewis, “Wave Of Light By Wave Of Light”, in Edmonton Journal, page C3:The Moroder-tinged Automatic is as frantic as the ethereal Speechless is haunting, each using ambient breakbeats for equally effective mindwashes.
** 2004, Anna Cypra Oliver, Assembling My Father: A Daughter’s Detective Story, Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, page 57:Under the old rules—the mindwash of terror my mother’s system of belief favored—curiosity was dangerous.
** 2020, Tera Lynn Childs, Myths, Mermaids, and Monsters, Fearless Alchemy, →ISBN:She couldn’t speak for her friends, but she definitely didn’t feel up to performing a mindwash.

### Verb

mindwash (third-person singular simple present mindwashes, present participle mindwashing, simple past and past participle mindwashed)
* Synonym of brainwash.
** 1962 April 9, Congressional Record, page A2726, column 3:The design, of course, is to mindwash the American people into the necessity of an armed international police force and a world court that would supersede and nullify our Constitution and Bill of Rights.
** 1972 April, Gerald L[yman] K[enneth] Smith, “I Confess”, in The Cross and The Flag, volume 31, number 1, Christian Nationalist Crusade, page 22, column 2:With the President of the United States threatening me with prison, with numerous attempts made to assassinate me and with the Jew-controlled press mindwashing the public into believing that I was a rabble-rouser and a dangerous man, where could I turn?
** 1990, G[eorge] Harry Stine, Blood Siege (Warbots; 9), Pinnacle Books, →ISBN, page 225:In Iran, she’d first attempted to mindwash the Jehorkhim followers of the Imam; she’d succeeded only partially because she’d been able to learn their fears and devils.
** 1999, Andrew Ross, “Our Much-Rumored Life”, in The Celebration Chronicles: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Property Values in Disney’s New Town, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 110:Among them were folks who made a point of not identifying as Disneyphiles, and who vocally berated those who were infantilized as “Disney nuts” or mindwashed “Disnoids.” Predictably, it was among the most highly educated and professional residents that the scorn for Disneyphilia was most pronounced.
** 2009, Steve Wright, Home Sweet Home: Banksy’s Bristol: The Unofficial Guide, Tangent Books, →ISBN, page 54:“They put adverts for posh, expensive cars up in poor neighbourhoods where people have no chance of ever affording them. I also want people to see that there is resistance, that people are attempting to engage and have a dialogue instead of accepting being mindwashed.”