wash-board

A woman scrubs clothes on a wash-board in a metal tub.

Definition

1. Noun:
   • A board used for washing clothes: A corrugated or ribbed board, typically made of metal, wood, or glass, used in the past for scrubbing and rubbing laundry by hand.
   • A musical instrument: A percussion instrument consisting of a similar corrugated board, often played by scraping a stick or thimble-covered fingers across its surface, used in folk, blues, and zydeco music.

Usage Examples

• Noun (laundry):

  • Before washing machines became common, every home had a washboard for scrubbing clothes. (A ribbed board used for manual laundry.)
  • She soaked the stained shirt in soapy water and rubbed it against the washboard. (The board provided a rough surface to loosen dirt.)

• Noun (musical instrument):

  • The band's rhythm section included a washboard player scraping out a lively beat. (A corrugated board used as a percussion instrument.)
  • He played the washboard with thimbles on his fingers during the folk festival. (The board produced a distinctive rattling sound.)

Advanced Usage

• "to have a washboard stomach": A metaphorical expression meaning to have very defined abdominal muscles, likening the ridges of the stomach to the corrugations of a washboard.

  • After months of training, he developed a washboard stomach. (His abdominal muscles were sharply defined and ridged.)

• "washboard road": A colloquial term for a road surface with a series of parallel ridges and dips, resembling the surface of a washboard, often caused by gravel or dirt roads.

  • Driving on the washboard road made the car vibrate violently. (The road had a corrugated surface.)

Variants and Related Words

• Washboarding (n): the act of using a washboard for laundry or music; also, the formation of ridges on a road surface.

  • Washboarding the clothes was a tedious but necessary chore. (The process of scrubbing laundry on a washboard.)

• Washboard-like (adj): resembling a washboard in appearance or texture.

  • The old fence had a washboard-like pattern of rust and rot. (The fence had a corrugated texture.)

Synonyms

• Laundry board: a board used for washing clothes.
• Scrub board: a board with ridges for scrubbing.
• Rub board: a board used for rubbing clothes clean.

Idioms

• "to be on the washboard": (rare, historical) to be engaged in manual laundry work.

  • She spent every Monday on the washboard, cleaning the family's clothes. (She performed laundry by hand using a washboard.)

• "washboard blues": A term referring to a style of blues music that prominently features the washboard as a percussion instrument.

  • The band played a lively washboard blues number that got everyone dancing. (A blues song with a washboard rhythm.)