laundry

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laundry

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From Middle English lavendrie, from Old French lavanderie, from Latin lavandaria. See launder.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɔːn.dɹi/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈlɑn.dɹi/
• (dialectal, obsolete, distinct from the cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈlɑːn.dɹi/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔːndɹi, -ɑndɹi

laundry (countable and uncountable, plural laundries)

1. A laundering; a washing.

   In our family of five, we have to do the laundry every other day.

2. A place or room where laundering is done - including, by extension, other forms of laundering than clothes washing.
   • 1883, Henry J. Winser, The Yellowstone National Park-A Manual for Tourists‎, New York: G.P. Putnam Sons, page 46:

     Old Faithful is sometimes degraded by being made a laundry. Garments placed in the crater during quiescence are ejected thoroughly washed when the eruption takes place.

3. That which needs to be, is being, or has been laundered.

   You've left your dirty laundry all over the house.

   • 1935, New York Court of Appeals. Records and Briefs., page 69:

     Q. Did you use to do the washing around your house, too? / The Court: She did all the work of the house, I suppose. / Mr. Feltenstein: That's what I want to find out. / A. I gave the laundry to the laundry. / Q. What? / A. I gave the wash to the laundry.

4. (slang, American football) A penalty flag.
5. A business whose primary purpose is to conceal the origins of money received illegally.

• (action): washing
• (place): lavatory, laundromat, washateria, laundrette

• “laundry”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “laundry”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.