bath - bathe

◊ 'bath'

In British English, a bath is a long rectangular container which you fill with water and sit in while you wash your body.

The bathroom had two basins, a huge bath and more towels than I had ever seen.

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In American English, a container like this is called a bathtub or a tub.

I spent hours in the warmth of the bathtub.

I lowered myself deeper into the tub.

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If you bath someone, you wash them in a bath.

She will show you how to bath the baby.

We bathed and dried Sandy together.

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You do not say that people bath themselves. British speakers say that someone has a bath.

I'm going to have a bath.

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◊ 'bathe'

American speakers say that someone takes a bath or, more formally, that they bathe .

I took a bath, my second that day.

After golf I would return to my apartment to bathe and change.

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Bathe is not used with this meaning in British English. In British English, when someone bathes, they swim or play in a lake or river or in the sea.

It is dangerous to bathe in the sea here.

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This use of bathe is now rather old-fashioned. In modern English, you usually say that someone goes swimming or goes for a swim. American speakers sometimes say that someone takes a swim.

She's going for a swim.

I went down to the ocean and took a swim.

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In both British and American English, if you bathe a cut or wound, you wash it.

He bathed the cuts on her feet.

She had watched her mother bathe his face and bandage his hands.

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Note that `bath' and `bathe' both have the present participle bathing and the past tense and past participle bathed.

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