wash one's hands

Etymology
The figurative sense comes from the account in Matthew 27:24 of the Bible in which, unwilling to condemn who has committed no crime but whose crucifixion the crowd has called for, symbolically washes his hands in public and says (according to the King James Version; spelling modernized): “I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.”

Verb

 * 1)  To go to the toilet.
 * 2)  To absolve oneself of responsibility or future blame for; to refuse to have any further involvement with.
 * 1)  To go to the toilet.
 * 2)  To absolve oneself of responsibility or future blame for; to refuse to have any further involvement with.
 * 1)  To absolve oneself of responsibility or future blame for; to refuse to have any further involvement with.

Translations

 * Arabic: غَسَلَ يَدَيْهِ مِنَ الْأَمْرِ
 * Catalan: rentar-se'n les mans, rentar-se'n les mans com Pilat
 * Chinese:
 * Mandarin:
 * Finnish:
 * French:
 * German:
 * Greek:
 * Hungarian:
 * Icelandic: láta sigla sinn sjó, þvo hendur sínar af
 * Indonesian:
 * Italian: lavarsene le mani
 * Japanese:
 * Macedonian: ми́е ра́це од
 * Malay: cuci tangan
 * Polish:
 * Portuguese: lavar as mãos, redimir-se de
 * Russian: ,
 * Spanish: ,
 * Tagalog: maghugas-kamay
 * Telugu: చేతులు కడుగుకొను