washboard

plural washboards

1. A board with a corrugated surface against which laundry may be rubbed.

   Numerous washing machines have been invented to save the fair sex from the severe labor of the Wash-board.

   1847, editorial staff, “Washing Machine”, in Scientific American, series 1, Volume 3, Issue 9, page 68

2. entertainmentSuch a board used as a simple percussion instrument.
3. nauticalA board fastened along a ship's gunwale to prevent splashing; a splashboard.
4. roadA stretch of ripples or bumps on a dirt or gravel road caused by interaction between traffic and road surface.

   washboard road

   2 more examples

   It's a rough trip no matter how you come, for these washboard roads will loosen up even brandnew cars pretty fast; and hitchhikers always find the going bad.

   1948, Truman Capote, Other Voices, Other Rooms, Part One, 1

   Franklin is beside himself, revving up the engine in the pickup. As I jump in, he spins out and takes off up the road in the direction the plane came from, bouncing dangerously over washboards and ruts.

   2009, Chinle Miller, Desert Rats: Adventures in the American Outback, page 35

5. colloquialA flat-chested woman.

   He slowly raised his head to look at me. "Shut it, washboard." "Huh?!" Here I was trying to comfort him, and what did I get for my troubles? An insult.

   2022 November 18, Saitosa, Oversummoned, Overpowered, and Over It! Volume 2, J-Novel Club, →ISBN

6. abbreviationcolloquialellipsisbodybuildingEllipsis of washboard abs.
7. datedBaseboard; skirting board.

present singular third person washboards · participle present washboarding · participle past washboarded · past washboarded

1. To produce a rippled texture on a surface.

   Doug came up with a half-guilty smile and washboarded his forehead at her.

   1967, James Jones, Go to the Widow-Maker, page 515

   3 more examples

   The rip that was generated by each change of tide had scoured the bottom white and washboarded the sand where it was still layered over the hardpan coral floor.

   1992, Ocean Realm, page 17

   The low bass brruummmp of 20-mm slugs going out washboarded the bulkheads.

   1997, David Poyer, The Passage: A Thriller, →ISBN

   She drove as fast as she dared, braking for the frost heaves that washboarded the blacktop and on her dirt road, bouncing in and out of the clay ruts cut by the flow of runoff.

   2001, Phoebe

2. entertainmentTo play a washboard.

   It's almost as if the urge to washboard is intrinsically human.

   2008, The New Yorker, page 28

3. beesTo move up and down or back and forth across the surface of a hive, possibly to lay down a layer of propolis and wax.

   Individual bees have been observed washboarding on the inside glass of an observation hive.

   2015, James E. Tew, The Beekeeper's Problem Solver, →ISBN, page 73

   1 more example

   This behaviour is believed to be associated with general cleaning activities but under what circumstances workers washboard is not known.

   2015, Robert Owen, The Australian Beekeeping Manual, →ISBN, page 19-51