WASHBOARD • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Washboard

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noun

Washboard n.

A fluted, or ribbed, board on which clothes are rubbed in washing them.

A board running round, and serving as a facing for, the walls of a room, next to the floor; a mopboard.

(Naut.) A broad, thin plank, fixed along the gunwale of boat to keep the sea from breaking inboard; also, a plank on the sill of a lower deck port, for the same purpose; called also wasteboard.

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Etymology of 'Washboard'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Washboard" Quotes from Famous Books

... scenes up stairs again, where young Swedes and Irish boys dress the dry skins, painting them over with black, and polishing and graining them by rubbing them with stones (a back-breaking operation, apparently, in the attitude of laundresses bent over an eternal washboard), are all highly entertaining. In the store-rooms we see the handsome sheets of morocco, including the kangaroo skins from Australia, perforated here and there with the hunter's shot, and distinguishable by the enormous flap which has, in the creature's life, encased the ...

— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science - April, 1873, Vol. XI, No. 25. • Various

... Casey stood wan day The dirty clothes to rub Upon the washboard, when she dived Head foremost o'er the tub; She lit upon her back an' yelled, As she was lying flat: "Go git your goon an' kill the bashte." O'Grady's ...

— Cole's Funny Picture Book No. 1 • Edward William Cole

... trouble. What was he drawing? Tom was quite warm now, and wanted something new to be going forward. It was certainly more agreeable to have an ill-natured humpback as a companion than to stand looking out of the study window at the rain, and kicking his foot against the washboard in solitude; something would happen every day,— "a quarrel or something"; and Tom thought he should rather like to show Philip that he had better not try his spiteful tricks on him. He suddenly walked across the hearth and looked ...

— The Mill on the Floss • George Eliot

... of clean, brown slope, ridged and grooved like a washboard, led gently down to meet the floor of the valley, where the scant grama-grass struggled to give a tinge of gray. The road appeared to become more clearly defined, and could be seen striking straight ...

— The Light of Western Stars • Zane Grey

... feet dangling over the washboard, I reflected, once or twice, that we were engaged in a race. All I had to do was to twist my head in order to make sure of it. I also reflected, I believe, that I was in the position of a man who has bet all he owns, with large odds on losing either way. But ...

— The Crossing • Winston Churchill

... That's the north wall of the Canyon. It ends at the great bluff—Greenland Point. See the black fringe above the bar of gold. That's a belt of pine trees. It's about eighty miles across this ragged old stone washboard of a desert. ... Now turn and look straight and strain your sight over Wildcat. See the rim purple dome. You must look hard. I'm glad it's clear and the sun is shining. We don't often get this view.... That purple dome is Navajo Mountain, ...

— The Call of the Canyon • Zane Grey

Words linked to "Washboard" : watercraft, vessel, device, protection, protective cover