ETYM Pref. a- + wash.
Washed by the waves or tide; -- said of a rock or strip of shore, or (Naut.) of an anchor, etc., when flush with the surface of the water, so that the waves break over it.
River that rises to the S of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and flows NE to Lake Abba on the frontier with Djibouti; length 800 km/500 mi. Although deep inside present-day Ethiopia, the Awash River was considered by Somalis to mark the eastern limit of Ethiopian sovereignty prior to the colonial division of Somaliland in the 19th century.