pinkwash

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pinkwash

Where it comes from

From pink + -wash.

verb pinkwashes · pinkwashing · pinkwashed

transitive, uncommon To cover in a coat of pink paint. […] I see, twenty yards away, workmen pinkwashing the newly laid, badly stained, cheap-looking brick cladding of a newly built apartment house called — well, something ridiculous: Nepal, let's say.
transitive To promote consumer goods or services by supporting breast cancer-related charities. They see such corporate involvement as exploitation, making profits on the backs of ill women. […] They claim these campaigns trivialize the disease, "pinkwashing" its real nature.
transitive To tout the gay-friendliness of something in an attempt to downplay or soften aspects of it considered negative. Pinkwashing not only manipulates the hard-won gains of Israel’s gay community, but it also ignores the existence of Palestinian gay-rights organizations.
Similar: rainbow-wash

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MLA

"pinkwash." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/pinkwash. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

pinkwash. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/pinkwash

Chicago

"pinkwash." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/pinkwash.

BibTeX

@misc{pinkwash_2026,
  title = {pinkwash},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/pinkwash},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}