Hills Hoist

See also: Hills hoist

English

Alternative forms

• Hills hoist

Etymology

From genitive of Hill (“a surname”) (with elided apostrophe) + hoist (“lift”); from the trade name of the product manufactured from 1945 by Lance Hill of Adelaide, South Australia.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

Hills Hoist (plural Hills Hoists)

1. (Australia) A rotary clothes line with adjustable height by means of a rotating handle.
   • 1989, Helen Townsend, Miranda′s Album‎^[1], page 52:

     A Hills Hoist was set into the concrete. It was covered with a lush choko vine. Hazel always claimed the Hills Hoist was the perfect plant support. “If you want to do some pruning, you just wind it up and spin it round.”

   • 1993, Tim Winton, Land's Edge‎^[2], page 8:

     Like most Australians I have spent much of my life in the suburbs. I was raised in the Perth suburb of Karrinyup. A quarter acre, a terracotta roof, a facade knocked out by some bored government architect, a Hills Hoist in the back yard and picket fences between us and the neighbours.

   • 2002, Meanjin, Volume 61, Melbourne University Press, page 165,

     I watched them glistening over the tiled rooftops and Hills hoists and waited, in awe, for the shadow to reach our Lower Templestowe back yard.

   • 2010, Emma Hardman, Nine Parts Water‎^[3], page 119:

     Even the sight of a Hills Hoist still gave her a Pavlovian response of calm and comfort. […] There were no Hills Hoists here in the caravan park, just bright cords pulled tight between caravans and trees, easily extended and retracted.

Usage notes

• The Hills Hoist is regarded as symbolic of Australian suburbia.