Meanings
plural washhouses · alternative wash house
- A domestic outbuilding used as a laundry.
Now I'll see things walking a road that fifty other men would miss. I'll give you an instance, connected with the robbery of a wash-house copper."
1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 218Synonyms: sinkhouse
- A public laundry.
- New ZealandA room in a house used for washing laundry; a utility room.
- UKhistoricalA public facility where people could wash themselves and their clothes.
[…] the washhouses complied with the Factory and Workshops Act of 1907.
2000, Joseph R. Skoski, Public Baths and Washhouses in Victorian Britain, 1842-1914, page 124
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA domestic outbuilding used as a laundry.
Origin
- Old Englishwæsċhūs
- Englishwashhouse
From Old English wæsċhūs, equivalent to wash + house.
More words from Old English
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Danish vaskehus
- vaskehusa building used as a laundry
Finnish pesula, pesutupa
- pesulaa building used as a laundry
- pesutupaa building used as a laundry
French lavoir
- lavoira building used as a laundry
German Waschhaus, Lavoir
- Waschhausa building used as a laundry
- Lavoira building used as a laundry
- Waschhüttea building used as a laundry
Italian lavatoio
- lavatoioa building used as a laundry
Polish pralnia
- pralniaa building used as a laundry
Portuguese lavadouro, lavadoiro
- lavadouroa building used as a laundry
- lavadoiroa building used as a laundry
- tanquea building used as a laundry
Spanish lavadero
- lavaderoa building used as a laundry
Cite this entry
washhouse. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/washhouse
“washhouse.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/washhouse. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “washhouse,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/washhouse.
Source: washhouse on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.