[f. WASHER sb.1 + WOMAN. Cf. G. wäscherfrau.]
1. A woman whose occupation is the washing of dirty linen; one who takes in washing.
1632. Sherwood, A washer woman, lauandiere, buandiere.
1674. R. Godfrey, Inj. & Ab. Physick, 151. A Poor Washer-woman … being very ill … was over-perswaded to imploy this Doctor.
1757. Foote, Author, I. Wks. 1799, I. 133. Mrs. Suds, your washer-woman.
1799. Southey, Love Elegies, i. 25. No washerwoman’s filthy hand shall e’er, Sweet pocket-handkerchief! thy worth profane.
1811. Regul. & Orders Army, 169. Servants … and Washer-women for each Troop.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xxxiv. Mrs. Bardell … looked out his linen for the washerwoman when it went abroad.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xxxvii. The pertinacity with which the washer-woman … brought … her bills week after week.
1877. Tennyson, Harold, IV. iii. First Thane. Down with William! Third Thane. The washerwoman’s brat!
b. Washerwoman’s fingers, hand, a condition of the hands, characteristic of cholera, resembling the wrinkling of the skin produced in the hands of washerwomen by the action of soap and soda. Washerwoman’s itch, scall, a form of eczema incident to the hands of washerwomen.
1844. Hoblyn, Dict. Med., Washerwoman’s Scall, Psoriasis lotorum.
1894. Gould, Illustr. Dict. Med., Washerwoman’s Hand: See Cholera-hand. Washerwoman’s Itch or Scall.
1898. P. Manson, Trop. Diseases, ii. 60. As in cholera, the serous drain may lead to … pinched features, washerwoman’s fingers.
2. = WASHER sb.1 4 a.
1817. Stephens, in Shaw’s Gen. Zool., X. II. 546. The Water-wagtail, or as it is called in many parts Dish-washer, or Washerwoman.
1832. [see DISH-WASHER].
1862. Johns, Brit. Birds Haunts, 171. The popular name Washerwoman belongs to the whole family [of wagtails].
