Hills Hoist
See also: Hills hoist
English
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editFrom genitive of Hill (“a surname”) (with elided apostrophe) + hoist (“lift”); from the trade name of the product manufactured from 1945 by Lance Hill of Adelaide, South Australia.
Pronunciation
editAudio (General Australian): (file)
Noun
editHills Hoist (plural Hills Hoists)
- (Australia) A rotary clothes line with adjustable height by means of a rotating handle.
- 1989, Helen Townsend, Miranda′s Album[1], page 52:
- A Hills Hoist was set into the concrete. It was covered with a lush choko vine. Hazel always claimed the Hills Hoist was the perfect plant support. “If you want to do some pruning, you just wind it up and spin it round.”
- 1993, Tim Winton, Land's Edge[2], page 8:
- Like most Australians I have spent much of my life in the suburbs. I was raised in the Perth suburb of Karrinyup. A quarter acre, a terracotta roof, a facade knocked out by some bored government architect, a Hills Hoist in the back yard and picket fences between us and the neighbours.
- 2002, Meanjin, Volume 61, Melbourne University Press, page 165,
- I watched them glistening over the tiled rooftops and Hills hoists and waited, in awe, for the shadow to reach our Lower Templestowe back yard.
- 2010, Emma Hardman, Nine Parts Water[3], page 119:
- Even the sight of a Hills Hoist still gave her a Pavlovian response of calm and comfort. […] There were no Hills Hoists here in the caravan park, just bright cords pulled tight between caravans and trees, easily extended and retracted.
Usage notes
edit- The Hills Hoist is regarded as symbolic of Australian suburbia.