[-ING1.
In OE. recorded only in the compound weascingweʓ ‘washing-way,’ ? ‘a road leading to a sheep-wash.’]
I. The action of WASH v.
1. The action or an act of cleansing by water, or of laving or bathing with water or other liquid. Also fig. with reference to spiritual or moral purification.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 332. Þe wassunke ine fuluhte wiðuten bitocneð þe wasschunge of þe soule wiðinnen.
c. 1305. Land Cokaygne, 48. Watir seruiþ þer to no þing Bot to siȝt and to waiissing.
1340. Ayenb., 178. Ase þet line cloþ þet is y-huyted be ofte wessinge.
a. 1425. trans. Arderne’s Treat. Fistula, etc., 53. Wasche wele þat legge … with hote watre … And so after þe waschyng lat it lye by a naturel day.
1466[?]. Stonor Papers (Camden), I. 92. For wosshyng of yowyr shertys and M. Wyllyams.
1508. Fisher, Penit. Ps. li. 1. (1509), i i vj. If a table be foule and fylthy … fyrst we rase it, after whan it is rased we wasshe it, and laste after the wasshynge we wype and make it clene.
1523–34. Fitzherb., Husb., § 51. Beware, that thou put not to many shepe in a penne at one tyme, neyther at the washyng, nor at the sheryng.
1587. D. Fenner, Song of Songs, vi. 3. Thy teeth are like a flocke of sheepe which comme vp from washing.
1603. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. I. 31. For the wysching of my chlos, xii d.
1636. Sanderson, Serm. (1681), II. 53. Stains of a deep dye will not out of the cloth, with such ordinary washings, as will fetch out lighter spots.
c. 1650. Binning, Serm., Wks. (1735), 567. The Blood and Water might be joined, the justifying Saviour, and the sanctifying Spirit; for both these are in this Gospel Washing.
1765. Museum Rust., IV. 234. Both these gentlemen depend on the clean washing of the seed, and the trials of both met with the wished-for success.
1829. [J. L. Knapp], Jrnl. Naturalist, 151–2. It [mole’s flesh] taints the fingers, which have touched it, with its peculiar odour, so that one washing does not remove it.
1857. Miller, Elem. Chem., Org., 77. The tubers are first freed from adhering earth by a thorough washing.
1869–71. Cassell’s Househ. Guide, II. 50/2. The white things will require two washings.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 611. Every other evening a washing with naphthol and sulphur soap may be given in a bath.
† b. To give one’s head (or beard) for the washing: to submit tamely to indignities (see HEAD sb. 58). Obs.
c. 1583. [see HEAD sb. 58].
1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, L 4. But the time was, when he would not haue giuen his head for the washing.
1613. Beaum. & Fl., Cupid’s Revenge, IV. i. And so am I [sc. resolved], and forty more good fellows, That will not give their heads for the washing, I take it. Ibid. (a. 1616), Bonduca, II. iii. Car. And to morrow night say to him, His Head is mine. Jud. I can assure ye Captain, He will not give it for this washing.
1663. [see HEAD sb. 58].
c. In reflexive sense.
1896. Conan Doyle, Rodney Stone, vii. It was his custom to go through a whole series of washings and changings after even the shortest journey.
1911. A. Plummer, Churches Brit. bef. A.D. 1000, I. iv. 120–1. Abstention from washing was a common form of asceticism.
d. A ceremonial ablution. (By Sir John Cheke used for: Baptism.)
c. 1375. Lay-Folks Mass-Bk. (MS. B.), 263. Til after wasshing þo preste wil loute þo auter.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., IV. ix. 468. That the bodili waisching with water schulde clense the soule fro moral vnclennessis.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 65. These cerimonyes that this doctour calleth but small thynges, I suppose they be be as stacyons, inclynacyons, gestures, turnynges, wesshynge … & suche other.
c. 1550. Cheke, Matt. xxi. 25. Joanns wasching from whens was it. from heaven, or from men.
1606. Arraignmt. & Exec. Traytors, D 1 b. Their pilgrimages to Idols, their shauings and their washings.
1644. Milton, M. Bucer, Wks. 1851, IV. 308. We are not to use Circumcision, Sacrifice, and those bodily Washings prescrib’d to the Jews.
1698–9. Osborn, Lett., in Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. (1732), 147. Addressing themselves to their Devotions, with the most solemn and critical Washings.
1772. Priestley, Inst. Relig. (1782), II. 340. Washing … accompanied many of the Jewish rites.
1846. S. Sharpe, Hist. Egypt, ix. 303. In their dislike of pork, in their washings, and in other Eastern customs, they [the Jews] were like the Egyptians.
e. spec. = ‘washing of clothes,’ esp. as one of the regular requirements of a person or household.
‘Meat, drink, washing, and lodging’: a proverbial summary expression for the necessaries of life; in rustic use often fig. = ‘all that one needs.’
1480. Cov. Leet Bk., 459. As to þat þat is seid þat the people of þis Citie hurten þe fisshe in Swanneswell pole be þeire weysshyng there þe people vnderstanden þat þe place of the seid weysshyng ys þe soyle or þe hospitall of sent John Baptiste.
1543. Sel. Cases Star Chamber (Selden Soc.), II. 274. To the sayd ij prest [sic] for brede wyne and washyng for the yere v s.
1610. Shuttleworths’ Acc. (Chetham Soc.), 187. A quarters washinge, to Roger Isherwood, vjd.
1617. Moryson, Itin., I. 8. A Dollor for chamber and washing.
1637. in Verney Mem. (1907), I. 88. It costs mee two and twenty shillings a week for my diet, lodging and washing.
1643. Select. Rec. Regality Melrose (S.H.S.), I. 100. [He is to maintain him] in meatt, drink, bed and board and clothes washing.
1725. Ramsay, Gentle Sheph., I. ii. We’ll end our washing while the morning’s cool.
1745. Mrs. E. Montagu, Corr. (1906), I. 225. He is to have livery, and frock every year, and six pounds wages the first year, the second seven. He is to put out his washing.
1765. Museum Rust., IV. 357. They usually give ten shillings by the week, with meat, drink, washing, and lodging, to stout men.
1797. Jane Austen, Sense & Sens., xxxvi. She … was not without hopes of finding out, before they parted, how much her washing cost per week.
c. 1800. Whole Life & D. Long Meg of Westm., ii. 4. She had not been bred unto her needle, but to hard labour, such as washing, brewing and baking.
1832. Athenæum, 9 June, 370/1. To whom bargains and bargain-making are the true meat, drink, washing, and lodging of life.
1841. Lytton, Nt. & Morn., I. vi. He shall share and share with my own young folks; and Mrs. Morton will take care of his washing and morals.
1856. Putnam’s Monthly Mag., Oct., 390/2. Only to think, too, of a hundred and fifty dollars, £30 a month—and board, lodging and washing, all free.
† f. At (the) washing = ‘at the wash’ (see WASH sb. 2). Obs.
1633. B. Jonson, Tale of Tub, II. ii. 136. Clay. … I never zaw you avore. Hil. You did not? where were your eyes then? out at washing?
1638. Bp. Mountague, Art. Eng. Norwich, A 4. Have you two faire large Surplices for your Minister to officiate Divine Service in, that the one may be for change, when the other is at washing?
1755. Shebbeare, Lydia (1769), II. 279. The stock of shirts being large, almost every man having one at the washing, and the other on.
g. In chemical and mining operations (see WASH v. 4, 11).
1600. Hakluyt, Voy., III. 66. Upon this Iland was found good store of the Ore, which in the washing helde gold to our thinking plainly to be seene.
a. 1650. E. Norgate, Miniatura (1919), 17. And soe your colour will appeare by reason of soe many washings cleane and faire.
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, I. 144. These washings … tended to change sirup of violets to a pale green.
1778. Pryce, Min. Cornub., Gloss. s.v. Jigging, Jigging, is a method of dressing the smaller Copper and Lead Ores by a peculiar motion of a wire sieve in a kieve or vat of water…. In the Lead Mines … they also term this operation,… ‘Washing.’
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 813. The most simple and economical washings are those that certain iron ores … are subjected to.
1853. S. Hughes, Gas-works, 135. It is also thought … that too much washing has the effect of diminishing the illuminating power of the gas.
1855. Orr’s Circ. Sci., Inorg. Nat., 252. in Siberia there are but few localities where the gold washings are largely carried on.
1886. Daily News, 17 July, 5/8. Special illustrations of diamond washing, cutting, and polishing were given.
h. With advs. away, of, out, up (often hyphened): see quots. and senses of WASH v.
1612. Sir D. Carleton in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. I. 587. For ye washing away of wch aspersion the Duke maketh profession [etc.].
1875. Wood & Lapham, Waiting for Mail, 106. Owing to the want of water for washing-up their funds were low.
1880. D. C. Davies, Metaliif. Min., 425. Washing off (Washing up, Am. & Aus.), the periodical final cleaning out of all the gutters and appliances used in alluvial and rock gold mining.
1888. Jacobi, Printers’ Vocab., Washing up, the operation of washing up rollers or ink slabs.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Miner’s Right, xviii. 177. The washings up were frequent and flourishing.
1890. Sir W. Stokes, in Brit. Med. Jrnl., 3 May, 999/2. Washing-out or irrigation of the stomach is a desirable antiseptic precaution.
1896. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., I. 330. These waters can be taken in large quantities, and thus exercise a washing-out effect.
1899. W. De Morgan, in Mackail, W. Morris, II. 17. A story which kept us all quiet and well-behaved till washing-up time.
2. Painting. The action of laying on a thin cont of color. Also washing in. Also attrib. in washing colo(u)r, manner.
a. 1650. Norgate, Miniatura (1919), 59. To worke in the apparrell and foldings in a washing manner without a ground.
1758. [Dossie], Handmaid to Arts, 172. Gamboge, Indian ink, sap-green, [etc.] … as they really dissolve and become transparent in water are true washing colours.
1811. Self Instructor, 522. Technical terms in painting … washing-in.
1823. J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 111. Employed in the first washings by house painters, and by them termed a first coat.
1856. Kane, Arctic Expl., II. iii. 47. It emerged from buried shadow, through all the stages of distinctness of an India-ink washing.
1877. S. Redgrave, Descr. Catal. Water-Col. Paintings, 17. The papers … were not sufficiently sized to bear the repeated washings of the artist.
3. Sweating of coin by means of acids.
14[?]. Hoccleve, Min. Poems, xxi. 116. If it be golde and hole that men hym profre … take it yf him lyst … for wasshinge or clyppynge hold hym content.
a. 1513. Fabyan, Chron., VII. (1533), 177 b. The coyne of golde at those dayes was greatly mynysshed wyth clyppyng & wasshyng.
1543. trans. Act 3 Hen. V., Stat. II. c. 6. Great doubte … hath ben whether that clyppynge, wasshynge, and fylynge of the money of the land ought to be iudged treason or not.
4. Surging, overflowing (of waves); the action of moving water in carrying off loose matter.
1471. Caxton, Recuyell (Sommer), 279. Hercules and exione were all wette of the wasshing and springyng of the wawes.
1610. Shaks., Temp., I. i. 61. Would thou mightst lye drowning the washing of ten Tides.
a. 1701. Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. (1707), 125. Upon any violent Rain, the whole City [of Damascus] becomes, by the washing of the Houses, as it were a Quagmire.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, I. (Globe), 248. The Washing of the Sea having spoil’d all their Powder.
1726. Leoni, Alberti’s Archit., I. 41. Mount Morello … is quite wild and naked; occasioned, as I suppose, by the washing of the Rains.
1778. T. Hutchins, Descr. Virginia, etc., 37. Fort Chartres … was abandoned in the year 1772, as it was rendered untenable by the constant washings of the River Missisippi in high floods.
1867. Morris, Jason, I. 398. And in their dreamless rest the wind in vain Howled round about, with washing of the rain. Ibid. (1868), Earthly Par., I. 257. Hearkening the washing of the watery way.
1888. Goode, Amer. Fishes, 402. The rapid, vigorous, spasmodic movements which accompany this operation produce a splashing in the water which can be plainly heard from the shore, and which the fishermen characterize as ‘washing.’
b. with adv.
1873. Tristram, Moab, vii. 124. Unsound ground, rendered more treacherous than usual by the washing in of the burrows of the mole-rat.
1886. J. A. Brown, in Q. Jrnl. Geol. Soc., May, 200. They [the furrow-gravels] could not have been formed by the washing-in of gravel by running springs.
5. Printers’ slang. (See quots. and WASH v. 19 a.)
1825. Hansard, Typogr., 308. Washing is had recourse to upon two occasions,—either for rousing a sense of shame in a fellow-workman who had been idling when he might have been at work; or to congratulate an apprentice upon the hour having arrived that brings his emancipation from the shackles of his subordinate station.
1888. Jacobi, Printers’ Vocab., Washing, an old-fashioned term for ‘jerrying,’ or making a noise on an apprentice coming out of his time.
II. Concrete senses.
6. pl. (formerly also sing.). The liquid that has been used to wash something; matter removed when something is washed. Also washing-out.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 8816. Þo þat were seke … Wasche þe stones, did hit in baþes;… Wasched þem of þe selue waschinges, & warysched wel of al þer pyne.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxiv. (Alexis), 323. Of þe weschel þe weschyng ful oft one his hed wald fling.
c. 1480. Henryson, Two Mice, 249. My dische weschingis is worth ȝour haill expence.
1577. Harrison, England, III. i. 96/2, in Holinshed. [Meade] is nothing else but the washing of the combes, when the hony is wrong out.
1598. Epulario, B ij b. Wash the flesh well with good white wine mingled with as much water, and straine the washing, and seeth the flesh therin.
1637. J. Taylor (Water P.), Drinke & Welcome, A 4. Small Beere in England, such as is said to be made of the washings of the Brewers legges and aprons.
1775. A. Burnaby, Trav. N. Amer., 34. Two curious hot springs, one tasting like alum, the other like the washings of a gun.
1805. [S. Weston], Werneria, 12. Swine-stone, when rubbed against a hard body, has a fetid odour like Harrowgate water, or rotten egss, or the washing out of a gun.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xxiv. The leech gave him a draught of medicated wine, mixed with water. He rejected it, under the dishonourable epithet of ‘kennel-washings.’
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 1324. The must is afterwards again pressed, and about one hogshead of what is termed washings is obtained from the same quantity that had previously afforded about three hogsheads of cider.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, II. 146. It [hogs’ wash] is composed of … the washings of cooking utensils.
1890. Retrospect Med., CII. 397. The peculiar reddish, watery discharge, ‘like the washings of raw meat,’ as a German writer has described it.
b. Matter carried away by rain or running water; alluvial soil deposited by a stream.
1707. Mortimer, Husb., 225. [Breeding-ponds] A fat Soil with a white fat Water, as the washings of Hills, Commons, Streets, Sinks, &c. is the best to fatten all sorts of Fish.
1739. Labelye, Westm. Bridge, 5. A Shoal … made up of Sand and of the Washing or Silting of the River.
1816. Brackenridge, Jrnl., 181. This limestone constitutes at least one half in the washings which are carried to the Missouri.
1834. Brit. Husb., I. 276. Some farmers, indeed, think these washings from the farmyards, though of a brown colour, are yet, in most instances, so diluted with rain, as not to be worth the expense of carriage.
1867. J. Hatton, Tallants, i. Their rivers are black with coal washings.
c. Metal obtained by washing ore or soil.
1604. E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, IV. xii. 244. There slippes away also some small portion of silver and quicke-silver with the earth and drosse, which they call washings.
1846. M’Culloch, Acc. Brit. Empire (1854), I. 614. The produce of the mines … may be taken, inclusive of the washings, at about 5,000 tons a year.
d. Places containing soil from which gold or diamonds are obtained by washing.
1865. Livingstone, Zambesi, ii. 52. In former times, when traders went with hundreds of slaves to the washings.
1899. Edin. Rev., April, 317. In Griqualand West diamonds occur in ‘washings,’ as well as in mines.
† 7. A medical ‘wash’ or lotion. Obs.
1541. Copland, Guydon’s Form., Y ij b. The chauffynges … of the gummes are appeased … wt this wasshing made of [etc.].
1563. T. Gale, Antidot., II. 23. The patyente … must vse good lotions, or washynges for hys mouth vntyll it be hole.
8. Clothes newly washed or set apart to be washed.
1854. Surtees, Handley Cr., xxxviii. (1901), II. 8. Family washings were whisked away [by the wind], or torn to tatters on the drying lines.
1889. Barrie, Window in Thrums, xxi. She got her death … one day of sudden rain, when she had run out to bring in her washing.
1901. C. T. C. Gaz., Oct., 390. Perambulators used by poor people to carry home washing in the evening.
1905. J. Mackenzie, Michael Bruce, iii. 33–4. The box was returned regularly with his washing, so that during the session a constant supply from home was furnished.
III. 9. In combinations (often synonymous with parallel formations in WASH-), as washing-basin, -blue, -brush, † -kit (KIT sb.1 1), -room, -soda, † -towel, -trough, -tub; † washing-ball = WASH-BALL; † washing-beetle, a wooden bat used to beat or pound clothes in the process of washing; washing-bill, a statement of laundry-charges; washing-block, -board, a wooden block or board on which clothes are beaten while being washed; washing-book, a book in which a person’s laundry-charges are entered; washing-bottle = WASH-bottle a, b; washing-bowl, † (a) a wash-hand basin; (b) a pan or tub for washing clothes, etc. (obs. exc. local); cf. WASH-BOWL; washing-crystals, crystallized soda used for washing clothes, etc.; washing-day, the day on which the dirty clothes of a household are washed; washing-engine, a machine for washing rags, etc., esp. in paper-making; washing-green, a piece of common grass-land on which clothes are spread or hung out to dry after washing; washing-house = WASH-HOUSE; washing-leather = WASH-LEATHER; washing-machine, a machine for washing clothes, cloth, etc.; washing-mill, † (a) a machine used for recovering particles of gold or silver from refuse matter; (b) a machine for washing cloth in the process of bleaching; washing-place, (a) a place where washing is done; a lavatory; a laundry; (b) a place where gold is washed out from sand or earth; washing-rod, a rod used to wash out a gun; washing-stand = WASHSTAND 1; † washing-stock (see quot. 1879); washing-stone, † (a) a kitchen-sink; (b) a stone on which clothes are beaten while being washed; washing-stuff, a miners’ name for auriferous earth; † washing-temple, used to trans. L. delubrum temple, shrine, as if f. deluere to wash thoroughly; † washing-vessel, a laver; washing-water, water for washing the hands, a chemical substance, etc. (cf. WASH-WATER); washing-week, a week devoted to washing the dirty clothes of a household; also fig.; † washing-well, fig. a fount of spiritual cleansing; † washing-woman = WASHERWOMAN.
1538. Elyot, Dict., s.v. Magmata, Pomaundres and *washing balles.
1597. Deloney, Gentle Craft, I. x. Wks. (1912), 114. Then shalt thou scoure thy pitchy fingers in a bason of hot water, with an ordinary washing Ball.
1612. Sc. Bk. Rates, in Halyburton’s Ledger (1867), 288. Ballis called weshing ballis the dozen, xii s.
1538. Elyot, Addit., Labrum, a *wasshynge basyn.
1558. Bury Wills (Camden), 150. One wasshinge basone of pewter.
1878. Trelawny, Rec. Shelley, etc., I. 161. I went to make my toilet, the sea my washing-basin—there was no other.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 517/2. *Waschynge betyl, or batyldore, feritorium.
c. 1566. Merie Tales of Skelton, in S.’s Wks. (1843), I. p. lxiii. Skelton … sayd to the wyfe, Geue me a washyng betle.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Woman’s Prize, II. v. Have I liv’d thus long to be knockt o’th head, With halfe a washing beetle?
1798. Jane Austen, Northang. Abb., xxii. She held a *washing-bill in her hand.
1905. H. G. Wells, Kipps, II. v. § 3. After that the washing-bill of Kipps quadrupled.
1590. in Archæologia, XL. 333. In the Boulting Howse,… a *washing block.
1676. D’Urfey, Mad. Fickle, I. i. (1677), 7. Like a Taylor [vaulting] ore’ a Washing-block.
1829. Sporting Mag., XXIV. 112. He looked like a frog on a washing-block.
1881. A. Watt, Sci. Industr., I. 5. Indigo … mixed with starch … forms the *‘washing blue’ of the laundry.
1810. T. Williamson, E. Ind. Vade-mecum, I. 247. The *washing-board, its prop, the drying lines [etc.].
1905. H. G. Wells, Kipps, I. vi. § 1. He … produced a *washing-book and two pencils.
1857. Miller, Elem. Chem., Org., 169. The vapours which are evolved should be transmitted through a *washing bottle containing water.
c. 1865. J. Wylde, in Circ. Sci., I. 406/1. Wash the precipitate by means of the washing-bottle.
14[?]. Rules & Const. Nuns Syon, lvi. in Aungier, Syon (1840), 392. *Waschyng bolles and sope.
1530. Palsgr., 287/1. Wasshyng boll, jatte.
1622. Mabbe, trans. Aleman’s Guzman d’Alf., II. 54. Like a basket of Buck-cloathes, when they are taken from the washing-Bole.
1884. McLaren, Spinning, 33. Petrie’s washing-bowl [for washing wool].
1585. Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 304/1. Penicillus rectorius,… *washing or white liming brush.
1626. Middleton, Anything for Quiet Life, V. ii. The day after *washing-day; once a week I see’t at home.
1754. in J. Cox, Narr. Thief-takers (1756), 103. It being Washing-day at her Father’s, she attended there.
1853. Dickens, Bleak Ho., xiv. His scrambling home, from week’s-end to week’s-end, is like one great washing-day—only nothing’s washed!
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 366. This stream of water is kept running through the rags in the *washing-engine.
1844. G. Dodd, Textile Manuf., ii. 49. This enormous piece passes into a washing-engine, to cleanse it from the ‘dressing’ or mucilage which the weaver had introduced into his warp.
1836. Prichard, Phys. Hist. Mankind (ed. 3), I. 40. He was about to make a *washing-green in the immediate neighbourhood.
1890. D. Davidson, Mem. Long Life, i. 27. One of the posts in the washing green.
14[?]. Rules & Const. Nuns Syon, xiv. in Aungier, Syon (1840), 296. Also silence … is to be kepte … in the *waschyng howse in tyme of waschynge.
1577. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., I. 12 b. My maides chamber neere the Kitchin, and the wasshing house.
1705. Lond. Gaz., No. 4101/3. A Brew-house, Dairy, Washing-house.
1822. Galt, Provost, xxxviii. The mistress had her big summer washing at the public washing-house on the Green.
1608. in Cochran-Patrick, Early Rec. Mining Scot. (1878), 148. Money debursit vpoun the dressing of the ore. For ane wesching tub and ane *wesching kitt, xviijs.
1799. Underwood, Dis. Childhood (ed. 4), II. 103. The heels only may be covered by a piece of *washing-leather.
1799. Hull Advertiser, 15 June, 2/4. A *washing machine.
1875. Encycl. Brit., III. 816/2. (Bleaching) From the washing machine the chain of cloth is passed through a pair of squeezers.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Washings, To get out the finer Parts, gone off with the Earth, they use Quicksilver, and a *Washing Mill.
1756. F. Home, Exper. Bleaching, 92. Were this to happen on the surface of the cloth, the oil would remain; nor would the washing-mill afterwards be able to carry it off.
1875. Encycl. Brit., III. 820/2. (Bleaching) Washed at washing-mill or stocks.
1538. London, in Lett. Suppress. Monasteries (Camden), 223. Ther towne hall … stondith upon the ryver, wher ys the commyn *wassching place of the most part of the towne, and in the cession dayes … ther ys such betyng with batildores as oon man can nott here another.
1659. Baxter, Key for Catholicks, I. xxxv. 252. The rest they no more regard then a meeting of women in a workhouse or a washing place.
1748. Anson’s Voy., I. v. 50. Negroes who have accidentally fallen upon rich washing places.
1851–3. C. Tomlinson’s Cycl. Useful Arts (1866), I. 3/2. The washing place [in an abattoir] is fitted up with coppers for boiling water.
1850. R. G. Cumming, Hunter’s Life S. Afr., I. xvi. 366. I accordingly stowed some ammunition and a *washing-rod in my old game-bag.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., IV. v. The cherub … was accordingly conducted to a little *washing-room, where Bella soaped his face.
1865. Enquire Within, § 1930. *Washing Soda as a Freezing Mixture.
1806–7. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life, X. ci. Rising, in a bitter frost, and going up to the *washing-stand.
1889. Gretton, Memory’s Harkback, 187. If you had a chest of drawers, the top of it was turned to account as the washing-stand.
1417–8. Acc. Obedientiars Abingdon Abbey (Camden), 88. Et in vno *wasshyngstok’ de nouo facto ij s. iiij d.
1700–1. R. Gough, Hist. Myddle (1875), 31. The next morning Hopkin was found dead in Oatley Parke, haveinge beene knocked on the head with the foote of a washing stocke which stood at Ellesmeare meare.
1879. Miss Jackson, Shropsh. Word-bk., Washing-stock, a bench on which clothes were laid and beaten with a kind of bat.
1585. Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 193/1. Vrnarium,… the sinke or *washing stone in a kitchen, where the Scullion makes cleane the dishes.
1813. J. Forsyth, Excurs. Italy, 288. I observed a group of these nymphs standing up to their knees in a fountain at washing-stones.
1853. J. Sherer, Gold-Finder Australia, 177. The gold … lies upon a sort of pipeclay, called by the diggers *‘washing stuff,’ which is from two inches to four feet thick.
1382. Wyclif, Isa. lxv. 4. In *wasshing temples of mawmetis [Vulg. in delubris idolorum]. Ibid., Jer. xliii. 12. In the washing templis of the godus of Egipt.
1404. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 398. 3 *wessyng towell.
c. 1460. Invent. Sir J. Fastolfe, in Archæologia, XXI. 275. Item, ij Wasschyng Tewellys of warke, eche of x yerds.
1557. in Pettus, Fodinæ Reg. (1670), 95. Everie man that hath a *Washing Trough of his own by the custom of the Mine.
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 431. Boiler, washing-trough, and sink.
1560. Burgh Rec. Stirling (1887), 1. 72. Ane *wesching tub.
1677. Horneck, Gt. Law Consid., iii. (1704), 67. He that makes a curious vessel of gold, doth not intend it for a washing-tub.
1842. Dickens, Amer. Notes, xv. A hoopless washing-tub.
1388. Wyclif, 1 Kings vii. 23. Also he made a ȝotun see, [gloss] that is, a *waisching vessel for preestis. Ibid., 31. The mouth of the waischyng vessel [1382 watir vessel; Vulg. os luteris].
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 517/2. Waschynge vessel, luter.
1827. Faraday, Chem. Manip., ix. (1842), 245. When a precipitate is soft and close in consistency, it is often of use to retain the *washing water on it, so as to penetrate and remove the soluble matter.
1876. Tyndall, Float. Matter Air (1881), 70. A portion of this washing-water reaching the infusion was clearly the origin of the life observed.
a. 1631. Donne, Serm., lxxxviii. (1649), II. 64. Doe not thinke to put off all to the *washing weeke; all thy sinnes, all thy repentance, to Easter, and the Sacrament then.
1825. T. Hook, Sayings, Ser. II. Passion & Princ., iv. Next week is our washing-week.
c. 1425. Cast. Persev., 3146, in Macro Plays, 170. Whanne man crieth mercy, & wyl not ses, Mercy schal be his *waschynge well.
1782. R. Cumberland, Anecd. Emin. Painters, II. 170. Crowds of *washing-women … and rows of linen.
1822–7. Good, Study Med. (1829), V. 325. The ganglion … is peculiarly common to the wrists of washing-women.
