Obs. [f. WASH v. + -STER.] A female washer (of linen), a washerwoman: in OE. also applied to a man.
c. 900. Wærferth, Gregory’s Dial., III. viii. 191. Iobinus, se wæs min wæscestre [L. fullo]. Ibid., IV. xii. 276. Se mæssepreost … was lufiʓende his wæscestran [L. presbyteram] swa swa his aʓne swuster.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 57. Quod melius patefacit exemplar lotricum, and þis us doð to understonden þe forbisne of þe wasshestren.
