LAUNDRESS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does laundress mean? 

• LAUNDRESS (noun)
  The noun LAUNDRESS has 1 sense:

1. a working woman who takes in washing

  Familiarity information: LAUNDRESS used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LAUNDRESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A working woman who takes in washing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

laundress; laundrywoman; washerwoman; washwoman

Hypernyms ("laundress" is a kind of...):

washer (someone who washes things for a living)

 Context examples 

"And, ma'am," he continued, "the laundress tells me some of the girls have two clean tuckers in the week: it is too much; the rules limit them to one."

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The second waiter informed me, in a whisper, that this old gentleman was a retired conveyancer living in the Square, and worth a mint of money, which it was expected he would leave to his laundress's daughter; likewise that it was rumoured that he had a service of plate in a bureau, all tarnished with lying by, though more than one spoon and a fork had never yet been beheld in his chambers by mortal vision.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

All that she could tell she told most gladly, but the all was little for one who had been there, and unsatisfactory for such an enquirer as Mrs Smith, who had already heard, through the short cut of a laundress and a waiter, rather more of the general success and produce of the evening than Anne could relate, and who now asked in vain for several particulars of the company.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

It seems they had come in the carriage with their reverend relative, and had been conducting a rummaging scrutiny of the room upstairs, while he transacted business with the housekeeper, questioned the laundress, and lectured the superintendent.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)