washout

Dictionary: wash·out (wŏsh'out', wôsh'-) pronunciation

1. Erosion of a relatively soft surface, such as a roadbed, by a sudden gush of water, as from a downpour or floods.
2. A channel produced by such erosion.
1. A total failure or disappointment.
2. One who fails to measure up to a standard, especially one who fails a course of training or study.

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Thesaurus: washout

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noun

Informal

Slang

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Veterinary Dictionary: washout

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To disperse or empty by flooding with water or other solvent.

medullary solute w. — a syndrome in which the relative hyperosmolarity of the renal medulla is reduced due to an excessive loss of sodium and chloride from the medullary interstitium, usually by diuresis. There is an inability to concentrate urine with polyuria and a compensatory polydipsia. Called also renal medullary washout.
w. period — in drug trials, the period allowed for all of the administered drug to be eliminated from the body.

Wikipedia: Washout

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For other uses, see Washout (disambiguation).

A washout is the sudden erosion of soft soil or other support surfaces by a gush of water, usually occurring during a heavy downpour of rain (a flash flood) or other stream flooding. These downpours may occur locally in a thunderstorm (particularly in summer, when they are often nearly stationary), or over a large area, such as following the landfall of a tropical cyclone. If a washout occurs in a crater-like formation, it is called a sinkhole, and usually involves a leaking or broken water main or sewerage pipes. (Other types of sinkholes, such as collapsed caves, are not washouts.)

Widespread washouts can occur in mountainous areas after heavy rains, even in normally dry ravines. A severe washout can become a landslide, or cause a dam break in an earthen dam. Like other forms of erosion, most washouts can be prevented by vegetation whose roots hold the soil, and prevention of deforestation, which slows the flow of water. Retaining walls and culverts may also be used, although particularly severe washouts may even destroy these if they are not large or strong enough.

Effect on road and rail transport

A washout occurred on the Riverside and Great Northern Railway in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, on June 11, 2004.

In road and rail transport, a washout is the result of a natural disaster where the roadbed is eroded away by flowing water, usually as the result of a flood. When a washout destroys a railroad's right-of-way, the track is sometimes left suspended in midair across the newly-formed gap, or it dips down into a ditch. The phenomenon is discussed in more detail under erosion.

In 2004, the remnants of Hurricane Frances and then Hurricane Ivan caused a large number of washouts in western North Carolina and other parts of the southern Appalachian Mountains, closing some roads for days, and parts of the Blue Ridge Parkway for months. Other washouts have also caused train wrecks where tracks have been unknowingly undermined. Motorists have also driven into flooded streams at night, unaware of a new washout on the road in front of them until it is too late to brake, and prompting a high-water rescue.

Major washouts can also ruin pipelines or undermine utility poles or underground lines, interrupting public utilities.

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Translations: Washout

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - udvasket, forvasket, farveløs, falmet, udkørt, bleg, bortskylning, fiasko

Nederlands (Dutch)
erosie, sof

Français (French)
n. - (Géol) érosion (par l'eau), (Aérosp) gauchissement du plan à profil d'aile (d'un avion), retombées entraînées par la pluie, (Sport) match annulé à cause de la pluie, fiasco (fam), personne en situation d'échec (souvent scolaire) (fam)

Deutsch (German)
n. - Pleite, Reinfall, Unterspülung

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (καθομ.) αποτυχία, φιάσκο

Italiano (Italian)
fiasco

Português (Portuguese)
n. - desmoronamento (m)

Русский (Russian)
промывка, отмена, провал (на экзамене), человек, не выдержавший испытания, неудачник, авария самолета, снятие с вооружения

Español (Spanish)
n. - fracaso, desastre, tramo inundado de carretera, derrumbe, persona inútil o incapaz

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - sköljning, fiasko, misslyckad person

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
冲失, 冲失的区域

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 沖失, 沖失的區域

한국어 (Korean)
n. - (폭우 따위로 토사, 암석의) 유실, (장, 방광의) 세척, 대실패

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 流失, 流失による崩壊箇所, 大失敗, ねじり下げ, 緊急停車信号, 失敗者, 落第生, 役立たず

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) اجتراف التربه, هزيمه ساحقه, حفرة في الطريق بفعل المياة أو المطر‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮כישלון, לא-יוצלח, חור, תעלה, פירצה בדרך או מסילה שנוצרה ע"י שיטפון, אפיק צר של נהר החותר לתוך מרבצים‬

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Copyrights:

		Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		Veterinary Dictionary. Saunders Comprehensive Veterinary Dictionary 3rd Edition. Copyright © 2007 by D.C. Blood, V.P. Studdert and C.C. Gay, Elsevier. All rights reserved. Read more
		Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Washout". Read more
		Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more