laundress

English

Etymology

launderer +‎ -ess

Noun

laundress (plural laundresses)

1. A woman whose employment is laundering.

Translations

A woman whose employment is laundering

• Armenian: լվացարարուհի (hy) f (lvacʻararuhi)
• Azerbaijani: paltaryuyan
• Bulgarian: перачка f (peračka)
• Catalan: bugadera (ca) f
• Czech: pradlena f
• Danish: vaskekone c
• Esperanto: lavistino
• French: blanchisseuse (fr) f, lavandière (fr) f
• Georgian: მრეცხავი (mrecxavi)
• German: Waschfrau f
• Greek: πλύστρα (el) f (plýstra)
• Hungarian: mosónő (hu)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Ido: lavistino (io)
• Navajo: asdzání daʼiigisígíí
• Norwegian: vaskekone f
• Polish: praczka (pl) f
• Portuguese: lavadeira (pt) f
• Quechua: t'aqsaq
• Romanian: spălătoreasă (ro) f
• Russian: пра́чка (ru) f (práčka)
• Spanish: lavandera (es) f
• Swedish: tvätterska

Verb

1. (obsolete, historical) To act as a laundress.
   • 1850, Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, Chapter 26,^[1]

     ‘Sir,’ said Mrs. Crupp, in a tone approaching to severity, ‘I’ve laundressed other young gentlemen besides yourself. […] ’

   • 1875, Mary Louisa Molesworth, “Too Bad” in Tell Me a Story, London: Macmillan, 5th edition, 1882, p. 169,^[2]

     And oh, my dears, real washing is very different work from the dolls’ laundressing—standing round a wash-hand basin placed on a nursery chair, and wasting ever so much beautiful honey-soap in nice clean hot water […]

   • 2007, Lawrence Hill, The Book of Negroes (Someone Knows My Name), New York: Norton, Book Three, p. 260,^[3]

     Mama got herself free before she had me, and she was laundressing for the British since my early days.