- VASKA
- (að), v. to wash the head, with dat. (vaska höfði, honum, sér).* * *að, [A. S. wascan; Engl. wash; Germ. waschen; Dan. vaske]:—to wash, but rare or at least hardly used in Icel., having been superseded by þvá, q. v.; in Dan. and Swed. it is freq.; in the Sagas only of washing the head with a kind of soap, see lauðr; vaska sér, to wash one’s head, Vígl. 30 (cp. the verse l. c.); vaska honum betr, Ísl. ii. 334, Bjarn. 68; þveginn ok vaskaðr, Sks. 362; vaskaði dasi, er ek dró þessa ár at borði, the laggard had his head washed, i. e. sat snug at home, whilst I pulled this oar, Fs. (in a verse); in all these instances of the head: metaph., vaska e-n í orðum, to wash one in words, MS. 4, 6.2. to wash, as a naut. term of the waves; brim vaskar, Edda (in a verse), so too in Dan. det vasker over.
An Icelandic-English dictionary. Richard Cleasby and Gudbrand Vigfusson. 1874.