wash-machine

A form of wash machine — Synonym of washing machine.

Meanings

nounwash-machine (plural wash-machines)

plural wash-machines

  1. datedDated form of wash machine.

    Warping and sizing blankets 76 yds. d10; wash-machine, d14, - - - - - [Dolls.] 24 [Cts.] 00

    1808 September 8, “The Accounts of the Guardians of the Poor, and Managers of the Alms House and House of Employment, […]”, in General Aurora Advertiser, number 5490, Philadelphia, Pa.: […] William J. Duane, and Co. […], →ISSN, →OCLC, page [3], column 2
    4 more examples

    There are in the Patent Office at Washington, not less thon^([sic]) seventy five distinct patents for Yankee wash-machines; […]

    1849 May 16, “Fecundity of Yankee Ingenuity”, in The Daily True Democrat, volume 3, number 110, Cleveland, Oh., →OCLC, page [2], column 1

    We have not only had mangles, wash-machines, dumb-waiters, cooking stoves, churns, &c., without number, but the friends of woman-kind are trying to get up methods by which the clothes can wash themselves; […]

    1850 October 26, “More Help for the Girls”, in John H. Pearsol, editor, The Saturday Express. […], volume 8, number 12, Lancaster, Pa.: John H. Pearsol, →OCLC, page [2], column 2

    In addition to the Tavern, a store is generally kept, containing tin kettles and pins, gilt breast-pins and calico, soap and candy, vinegar and wash-machines, fish-hooks and peppermint, and as great a variety of notions as any Yankee ever carried in his pack.

    1851 July 18, W. H[.] H., “From the Easton Argus. Life in Virginia.”, in R. W. Weaver, editor, The Star of the North, volume 3, number 32, Bloomsburg, Pa., published 4 September 1851, →ISSN, →OCLC, front page, column 2

    Like now the war is over and we are gonna have all kinds electric things again, toasters, curlers, wash-machines, flatirons, everything.

    1945 October 28, “About--; --ENTERPRISE”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 10 Dec 2025
Cite this entry
APA

wash-machine. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wash-machine

MLA

“wash-machine.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wash-machine. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “wash-machine,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wash-machine.

Source: wash-machine on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.