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laundress

noun

Etymology

From launderer + -ess.

  1. derived from lavō
  2. derived from lavandera
  3. derived from lavandiere
  4. inherited from lavender
  5. suffixed as launderer — “launder + er”
  6. suffixed as laundress — “launderer + ess”

Definitions

  1. Synonym of washerwoman.

    • I tell thee ſhameleſſe girle, Thou ſhalt be Landreſſe to my waiting maide:

  2. To act as a laundress.

    • ‘Sir,’ said Mrs. Crupp, in a tone approaching to severity, ‘I’ve laundressed other young gentlemen besides yourself. […]’
    • And oh, my dears, real washing is very different work from the dolls’ laundressing—standing round a wash-hand basin placed on a nursery chair, and wasting ever so much beautiful honey-soap in nice clean hot water […]
    • 2007, Lawrence Hill, The Book of Negroes (Someone Knows My Name), New York: Norton, Book Three, p. 260, Mama got herself free before she had me, and she was laundressing for the British since my early days.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for laundress. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA