wash-ball

plural wash-balls · alternative wash ball · alternative washball

1. archaicA ball or cake of substance used for bathing or personal cleansing, or to produce a lather for shaving; a ball of soap.

   Magmata, um. The dregs of ointment, waſh-balls.

   1662, Christopher Wase, Dictionarium minus: A Compendious Dictionary English–Latin & Latin–English, London: Da. Maxwell, →OCLC, page [542]

   5 more examples

   My Husband is a Barbar / His Washbals are admir'd, / And I have got a Bason. / Where he Ladders whilst he's tyr'd: / Thus a Youthful Bedfellow vigorous and strong, / Has made an old Woman grow young.

   1693, Age Renewed by Wedlock;Pepys Ballads; 5.159], London: J. W., archived from the original on 07 Oct 2015

   Take Powder of Fænugreek, Aniſeeds, Cumin-Seeds, Elicampain, Colts-foot, Flower of Sulphur, of each three Ounces, Juice of Liquorice one Ounce, Oil of Olives, and Hony, of each eight Ounces, Genoa Treacle twelve Ounces, Oil of Aniſeeds one Ounce; mix altogether, with a Pound and a Half of Wheat Meal, or what is ſufficient to make the whole into a Paſt, which roll into Balls as about as big as a common Waſh-Ball.

   1721, William Gibson, The Farriers Dispensatory, London: W. Taylor, →OCLC, page 179

   But that I know how I am perſecuted, I ſhould have ſworn this was my very Neighbour, that oft with Razor keen and lathering Waſh-ball mow'd the rough Stubble from my dented Chin, and ſnapp'd his fingers with acute Agility.

   1729, Thomas d'Urfey, The Comical History of Don Quixote, London: J[ohn] Darby, A. Bettesworth, F. Clay, →OCLC, pages 84–85

   That which gave me the firſt Suſpicion, that the Chalybeat Waters did not contain any rough, or vitriolic, or acid Salts in them, proceeded from an accidental Uſe of a ſtrong Iron Water, in which I diſſolv'd Soap, and found it lather and waſh my Hands well, and then I us'd a Waſhball and ſhav'd with it, and try'd ſeveral other Waters of this ſort, which did the ſame, and much better than ſome Pump-Waters.

   1731, Henry Jones with Royal Society, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 2nd edition, volume IV, London: J. and J. Knapton [et al.], →OCLC, page 199

   [T]here came in four Damſels, […] the fourth with her Sleeves tuck'd above her Elbows, held in her Lilly-white Hand (for exceeding white it was) a large Waſh-ball of Naples-Soap. […] the Damſel that brought the Waſh-ball fell to Work, and belather'd his Beard ſo effectually, that the Suds, like huge Flakes of Snow, flew all over the paſſive Knight's face; inſomuch, that he was forc'd to ſhut his Eyes.

   1743, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, anonymous translator, Don Quixote, 7th rev. edition, London: D. Midwinter [et al.], pages 287–288