Forms: 4–9 lander, 4 Sc. landar, laynder, 5–7 la(u)ndre, law(e)nder(e, 5– launder. [Contraction of LAVENDER sb.1]
† 1. A person (of either sex) who washes linen. Obs.
a. 1350. St. Brice, 71, in Horstm., Altengl. Leg. (1881), 156. A woman þat his lander was.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, XVI. 273. It is ane landar … That hir childyne richt now hass tane.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 290/1. Lawndere, lotor, lotrix.
1477. Norton, Ord. Alch., v. in Ashm. (1652), 79. As Laundres witness evidently, When of Ashes thei make their Lye.
a. 1530. Heywood, Play Weather (Brandl), 894. She wolde banyshe the sonne And then were we pore launders all vndonne.
1573. Tusser, Husb., lxxxiii. (1878), 173. In washing by hand, haue an eie to thy boll, for launders and millers, be quick of their toll.
1584. Cogan, Haven Health (1636), 28. Amylum is taken to be starch, the use whereof is best knowne to Launders.
a. 1603. T. Cartwright, Confut. Rhem. N. T. (1618), 31. How small things they be, that these cunning Launders can with so small cost make white.
2. a. A trough for water, either cut in the earth, or formed of wood; esp. in Mining, a trough for washing the ore clean from dirt. b. A rain-water gutter. † c. A tube made out of a hollow tree (obs.).
1667. Primatt, City & C. Build., 8. The water brought to the top of the wheel, in landers or troughs which cast the same into Buckets made in the wheel.
1671. Phil. Trans., VI. 2108. The Launder (i.e. a trench cut in the floor, 8 foot long, and 10 foot over) stopt at the other end with a turf, so that the waters run away, and the Ore sinks to the bottom.
1734. Desaguliers, Ibid., XXXIX. 48. This centrifugal Wheel can in a little Time drive down Air through wooden Trunks (or Launders) of seven Inches bore.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v. Dressing, The launder … fills up with the dressed ore.
1865. Crt. Com. Pleas, 10 July. A lander or trough … had been constructed to carry water to his works across the defendant’s land.
1884. West. Morn. News, 9 Aug., 1/4. Lot of launders, 14 buddles.
1891. Blizzard of 1891, 25. Icicles hung inches long from window-sills and launders of the houses.
