washhouse

English

Etymology

From Old English wæsċhūs, equivalent to wash +‎ house.

Noun

washhouse (plural washhouses)

1. A domestic outbuilding used as a laundry.
   • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 218:

     Now I'll see things walking a road that fifty other men would miss. I'll give you an instance, connected with the robbery of a wash-house copper."

2. A public laundry.
3. (New Zealand) A room in a house used for washing laundry; a utility room.
4. (UK, historical) A public facility where people could wash themselves and their clothes.
   • 2000, Joseph R. Skoski, Public Baths and Washhouses in Victorian Britain, 1842-1914, page 124:

     […] the washhouses complied with the Factory and Workshops Act of 1907.

Alternative forms

• wash house

Related terms

• backhouse
• washery

 

Translations

a building used as a laundry

• Finnish: pesula (fi), pesutupa (fi)
• French: lavoir (fr) m
• German: Waschhaus, Lavoir (de), Waschhütte
• Hungarian: please add this translation if you can
• Italian: lavatoio m
• Portuguese: lavadouro (pt) m, lavadoiro (pt) m, tanque (pt) m
• Spanish: lavadero (es) m