A wash is something we give ourselves to clean up and feel refreshed. So why is it that we use the phrase washed up to describe the feeling of being worn out and used up?
The Word Detective explains that there are multiple threads of meaning that contributed to the development of the emotional concept of feeling washed up. Among these is the sense of a person being washed up before being put away, like a tool that will never be used again. Another is the image of a person feeling like a piece of flotsam that has been washed up on shore.
The idea of feeling washed up has the connotation of a confluence of old age and professional troubles. “I feel washed up, finished and unwanted,” says Bob, a 48 year-old accountant who’s struggling to find work, wondering whether he’ll only be able to find jobs performing “menial tasks” because of his age.
Old age isn’t a requirement for feeling washed up, though. Kristina comments, “I feel washed up. I feel drained with a lifetime of negative experiences, constant worry, and anxiety and yet here I am, writing this, at twenty-two years old.”
At the heart of the emotional pain of feeling washed up is the sense of having lost one’s stride, of having once been confident and respected, only to have tripped up or become weary over time. The fear of the washed up is that, with their image tarnished, they’ll never again be given a chance to prove themselves.
