Also 6–7 washouse, 9 vulgar washus, wash’us. [f. WASH v. + HOUSE sb. Cf. Du. waschhuis, G. waschhaus.]
† 1. A bath-house. Obs. rare.
c. 1000. O.E. Glosses, in Ztschr. f. deutsches Altertum, XXXI. 13. Colimbum, wæschus.
1704. J. Pitts, Acc. Mohammetans, 47. They have many Hammams, or Wash-houses to bath themselves in.
2. An outbuilding or apartment used for washing clothes.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., I. 13. There is also a thirde stie, not farre from the washouse, for the fatting of my Porkes.
1580. in Archæologia, LXIV. 358. To set upp the gat at the washouse.
1671. T. Lacy, in Extr. St. Papers rel. Friends, IV. (1913), 350. I … saw a little shedd or washouse all on fire.
1753. Miss Collier, Art Torment., I. i. (1811), 36. In the wash-house or the scullery.
1835. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Mistaken Milliner. Four beautiful rooms, and a delightful little washhouse at the end of the passage. Ibid. (1837), Pickw., xxv. We keep a boy to do the dirty work, and a gal besides, but they dine in the washus.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, lvi. The Rev. Mr. Veal had … a theatre (in the wash-house).
1917. [M. V. Hay], Wounded, etc., v. 161. A large shed at the end of the garden, which had at one time been used as a wash-house, now falling to ruin, still contained a rusty boiler and some broken wash-tubs.
b. A building in which goods are washed in the process of bleaching, or calico printing.
1701. Lond. Gaz., No. 3760/4. A House, and Ground fit for a Whitster, or Callico-Printer, is to be Let, with several Sheds and Wash-houses.
c. U.S. An establishment at which clothes are washed; a laundry.
1873. B. Harte, Fiddletown, 28. The next day he entered the wash-house of Chy Fook as an assistant.
d. A building, provided with suitable accommodation, at which the public may wash clothes.
1846. Act 9 & 10 Vict., c. 74 § 1. To encourage the Establishment therein of public Baths and Wash-houses.
1859. Jephson, Brittany, v. 49. Public washhouses have been established in many places.
1912. Throne, 7 Aug., 206/2. A local borough councillor … who points with pride to the new borough wash-houses.
3. attrib.
1835. Dickens, Sk. Boz, Parish, v. I felt as lonesome as a kitten in a wash-house copper with the lid on. Ibid. (1838), O. Twist, l. Charley and I made our lucky up the wash’us chimney.
1901. Daily Chron., 4 Dec., 9/2. Engineer and Washhouse-man required [in a steam laundry].
1909. ‘Q’ (Quilier-Couch), True Tilda, xx. 277. Run, Hepsy, and fill the wash-house boiler.
