washing machine

noun — 2 senses

washing machine

nounalso spelled washing-machine
1

A machine, usually automatic, that washes clothes, etc.

  • She put all the dirty clothes in the washing machine.
Synonyms
washer

washing-machine

noun
1

Dated Dated form of washing machine.

  • As soon as Mahailey got used to a washing-machine or a churn, Ralph, to keep up with the bristling march of events, brought home a still newer one.1922, Willa Cather, One of Ours, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, page 18:
  • ‘Morning Mrs. Weissnicht. I’ve just heard as how your washing-machine’s gone bung.’1953, Eric Linklater, A Year of Space, page 206:
3 more examples
  • The entire town mated together, in the leafy bowers that had sprung up among the washing-machines and television sets in the shopping mall, on the settees and divans by the furniture store, in the tropical paradises of the suburban gardens.1979, J.G. Ballard, The Unlimited Dream Company, chapter 30:
  • The clatter from the kitchen was comforting. Edie, dealing with the breakfast dishes, loading the washing-machine with a weekend’s worth of dirty clothes, and talking to the dogs.1990, Rosamunde Pilcher, September, Thorndike, Me.: Thorndike Press, →ISBN, page 412:
  • Her laundry smacked against the porthole of her washing-machine.1993, António Lobo Antunes, translated by Richard Zenith, Act of the Damned, New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, published 1995, →ISBN, page 14:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — authors: page histories for washing machine and washing-machine.