laundry mark

plural laundry marks · alternative laundry-mark

1. historicalAn identifying marking, usually in coded form and handwritten in indelible ink on an inconspicuous area of a garment, widely used until the mid-20th century as an organizing aid by merchants who cleaned and pressed clothing.

   One of his shirt cuffs . . . bore a laundry mark, and the detectives finally located the laundry in this city.

   1888 December 5, “Black Bart, the Highwayman”, in Montreal Herald, retrieved 04 Jan 2010, page 6

   2 more examples

   The suit-case gave no clue. It contained one empty leather-covered flask and a pint bottle, also empty, a change of linen and some collars with the laundry mark, S. H.

   1909, Mary Roberts Rinehart, “Numbers Seven and Nine”, in The Man in Lower Ten, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC, page 50

   Some of the numbers I remember had become useless information until the computer age brought forth the frequent necessity of thinking up passwords. . . . [W]hen at least one letter is required, I type in my army laundry mark, which is my last initial and the final four digits of my serial number.

   2008 August 9, Burle Pettit, “When you get right down to it, life is a numbers game”, in Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, retrieved 04 Jan 2010