WordGarden.iolaundress
C2Pronunciation
UK
- /lˈɔːndrɛs/
US
Meanings
Noun
a woman whose job is washing, drying, or ironing clothes and household linens
Beyond the definition
Once upon a time, before washing machines were common, many families relied on women who washed, dried, and ironed clothes by hand. That is the basic idea behind laundress. The word usually belongs to older times and often appears in stories, history books, or period dramas. It can describe a woman who washed clothes for a household, a large home, or sometimes a business or institution. Today, the word sounds old-fashioned, so modern English usually says laundry worker or simply talks about someone who does the laundry.
The word laundress refers to a woman whose work is washing clothes and household linen. It is an old word, and in modern English it is usually felt as historical or old-fashioned. For a long time, washing clothes was hard physical work that took many hours. A laundress did much more than put clothes in a machine. She might carry water, heat it, scrub cloth by hand, rinse it, wring it out, dry it, and iron it carefully.
Historically, laundresses might work for private homes, wealthy estates, boarding houses, or other places that needed regular washing. Some worked for themselves, while others were servants or hired workers. In older settings, the word can bring to mind riverbanks, washhouses, steaming tubs, and long days of manual labor.
Today, people rarely use laundress in everyday speech. Instead, they are more likely to say laundry worker, cleaner, or simply describe the job in another way. Because of that, the word now appears most often in historical writing, novels, biographies, and discussions of life in the past. When you see laundress, it usually points not only to a job, but also to a time when washing clothes was a major part of daily life and a source of paid work for many women.
Examples
- 1
Hotel job
She found work as a laundress at a small hotel.
- Caution
laundress refers to a woman; laundry worker is more neutral and common today
- 2
Fiction
In the novel, the laundress hears every secret in the house.
- 3
Historical records
The old account book lists a payment to the laundress for shirts and sheets.
See also
Forms and spellings
2 forms open this card.
Main spelling
- laundressnoun
Forms
- laundressespluralnoun