WASHBOARD • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Washboard

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/wˈɑʃbˌɔrd/ Listen

Washboard

noun

Device consisting of a corrugated surface to scrub clothes on.

Protective covering consisting of a broad plank along a gunwale to keep water from splashing over the side. Synonym: splashboard.

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Etymology of 'Washboard'

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"Washboard" Quotes from Famous Books

... the piece of linen which she has on the washboard back into the tub and going over to the oven.] You come in here a sight ...

— The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann - Volume II • Gerhart Hauptmann

... play on the washboard—that's the kind of a pianny you nade to play on," grumbled her father. "I'm sorry for ye," he added turning to Janice, "if your folks has to depend on the likes of her to do the work. Sure, it's not right good ...

— Janice Day, The Young Homemaker • Helen Beecher Long

... after another without any trouble. What was he drawing? Tom was quite warm now, and wanted something new to be going forward. It was certainly more agreeable to have an ill-natured humpback as a companion than to stand looking out of the study window at the rain, and kicking his foot against the washboard in solitude; something would happen every day,— "a quarrel or something"; and Tom thought he should rather like to show Philip that he had better not try his spiteful tricks on him. He suddenly walked across the hearth and looked over ...

— The Mill on the Floss • George Eliot

... his tub and washboard on a box and rubbed vigorously on his undergarments, he smiled to himself and wondered what his friends of The Colonial would say if they could see him at the moment. He did not so much mind washing, it was easier than digging post holes, but it was not much of a way to spend ...

— The Dude Wrangler • Caroline Lockhart

... pillow-cases. Breakfast was cleared away, the beds were made, the sitting-room was tidied, and it was not eight o'clock, yet she was nearly done. And while she worked steadily to finish, the boiler on the stove behind her kept time with its clanking cover to the grating tune of her washboard. ...

— The Biography of a Prairie Girl • Eleanor Gates

... barrel at the corner of the house. For while Willow Lane had water, water everywhere, the inhabitants had not any drop in which to wash themselves. But the overflowing rain-barrels had tempted Judy to-day, and so her little figure was bobbing up and down over the washboard like a play Judy in a show. She was scrubbing her own clothes, but not her husband's, for Mr. Cassidy and his wife lived each an entirely independent life. They occupied different sections of the house ...

— The End of the Rainbow • Marian Keith