whitewash has 3 distinct synonyms spread across 1 of its 6 senses. Each sense below keeps its own list, because a synonym belongs to a meaning and not to a word: swapping one sense's substitute into another sense's sentence is how a thesaurus makes writing worse. WordNet records no antonym for it — antonymy is a relation between word forms rather than concepts, so it is deliberately sparse.
Counts are distinct word forms across every sense. A synonym that appears under three senses is counted once here and shown three times below, under each sense it belongs to.
a defeat in which the losing person or team fails to score
wash consisting of lime and size in water; used for whitening walls and other surfaces
a specious or deceptive clearing that attempts to gloss over failings and defects
Synonyms, antonyms and the broader and narrower relations for whitewash come from Princeton University’s WordNet. Full sources and licences.
cover up a misdemeanor, fault, or error
“Let's not whitewash the crimes of Stalin”
exonerate by means of a perfunctory investigation or through biased presentation of data