LAVE
(layv)
To
wash or bathe Common
clues:
Wash;
Bathe; Do ablutions; Use soap; Wash up, e.g.; Take a bath;
Cleanse; Come clean?; Use soap Crossword
puzzle frequency:
2 times a year Video: How
to Wash a Cat
Bathing
is the immersion of the body in a fluid, usually water or an
aqueous solution. It may be practised for hygiene, religious or
therapeutic purposes or as a recreational activity.
While
it's true that most cats find the bathing experience less than
savory, professional cat breeders acclimate their pets to the
process through regular repetition.
Some
spa facilities provide bathing in various other liquids such as
chocolate or mud. There have been examples of bathing in
champagne, baked beans and all manner of other substances. The
intentional exposure of the body to any agent may be considered
bathing, for example to sunlight (sunbathing) or wind
(windbathing).
Bathing
serves several purposes:
Hygiene,
and the physical appearance of cleanliness
Decontamination
from chemical, biological, nuclear or other exposure-type
hazards.
Recreation
Therapy
(e.g. hydrotherapy), healing, rehabilitation from injury or
addiction, relaxation (e.g. Blessed Rainy Day)
Religious,
or, less frequently, other ceremonial rites (e.g. Baptism,
Mikvah)
Celebration
and socialization, e.g. running through fountains after winning
the World Series, or jumping through a hole cut in the ice over a
lake on New Year's Eve.
Ensuring
people are free of certain items such as weapons or other
contraband: In Chicago, Russian baths were a safe meeting place
for rival gang leaders. Weapons are difficult to conceal on a
nearly naked body. If the meeting resulted in reconciliation, the
gangs would meet upstairs for bagels, cream cheese and borscht.
Many homeless shelters, and almost all prisons have an intake
facility or intake process that includes a supervised shower with
change of clothes to ensure that no contraband or contamination
enters the facility.
Bathing
is usually done in a bath (i.e. a place designed for bathing),
but may also be done in places not specifically designed for the
purpose, such as rooftops (sunbathing and windbathing), a lake or
river.
One
town known for its baths is Bath (known during ancient Roman
times as Aquae Sulis), a Roman city in England famous for healing
hydrothermal springs, and most recently for the Bath Spa Project
consisting of a rooftop pool overlooking the city of Bath, as
well as four circular clear glass steam baths. The word bath is
believed to be derived from the name of the city.
While
it is customary for most people to bathe daily, personal hygiene
habits vary, with some people bathing more than once a day and
others every few days.
In
Western culture, it is typical for people to bathe in the morning
before starting the activities of the day or meeting with others
outside the home. Arriving at work without having showered may be
seen as a sign of unprofessionalism or slovenliness. In contrast,
people in East Asia customarily bathe twice a day especially
during the evening or the night, the rationale being that after a
day's work one should remove sweat and dirt, in order to be
comfortable and clean, thus keeping the bed clean.
This
article is licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia
article "Bathing".
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