laundry

Etymology

From Middle English lavendrie, from Old French lavanderie, from Latin lavandaria. See launder.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɔːn.dɹi/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈlɑn.dɹi/
• (dialectal, obsolete, distinct from the cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈlɑːn.dɹi/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔːndɹi, -ɑndɹi

Noun

laundry (countable and uncountable, plural laundries)

1. A laundering; a washing.

   In our family of five, we have to do the laundry every other day.

2. A place or room where laundering is done - including, by extension, other forms of laundering than clothes washing.
   • 1883, Henry J. Winser, The Yellowstone National Park-A Manual for Tourists‎, New York: G.P. Putnam Sons, page 46:

     Old Faithful is sometimes degraded by being made a laundry. Garments placed in the crater during quiescence are ejected thoroughly washed when the eruption takes place.

3. That which needs to be, is being, or has been laundered. [from c. 1930]

   You've left your dirty laundry all over the house.

   • 1935, New York Court of Appeals. Records and Briefs., page 69:

     Q. Did you use to do the washing around your house, too? / The Court: She did all the work of the house, I suppose. / Mr. Feltenstein: That's what I want to find out. / A. I gave the laundry to the laundry. / Q. What? / A. I gave the wash to the laundry.

4. (slang, American football) A penalty flag.
5. A business whose primary purpose is to conceal the origins of money received illegally.

References

• “laundry”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “laundry”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.