laundry

noun

laun·​dry ˈlȯn-drē 

ˈlän-

plural laundries

1

a

: a room for doing the family wash

b

: a commercial laundering establishment

2

: clothes or linens that have been or are to be laundered

Examples of laundry in a Sentence

There's a pile of dirty laundry in the laundry basket.

The patients' sheets are sent regularly to the hospital laundry.

Recent Examples on the Web

At the same, despite decades of technical advancements and billions of dollars of investment, even the most advanced robot systems still struggle to do many everyday tasks humans take for granted like folding laundry or stacking blocks. —Mack Degeurin, Popular Science, 20 Nov. 2024

Once it’s opened, liquid laundry detergent should be used within six months for the best cleaning results and make that endless stream of laundry as easy as possible. —Melissa Locker, Southern Living, 3 Nov. 2024

My bed is unmade, a pile of unfolded laundry sits over my right shoulder, and a $9.99 Muhammad Ali poster hangs on my wall. —thehustle.co, 1 Nov. 2024

The Answer Could Make Fans Mad Pascal emerged as Joan’s first villain on The Golden Bachelorette after Episode 2 saw another contestant, Gregg Lassen, doing Pascal’s laundry as an apology for snoring so much. —Jason Pham, StyleCaster, 23 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1577, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing laundry

• air one's dirty laundry
• dirty laundry
• do the/one's laundry
• laundry list
• load of laundry

Kids Definition

laundry

noun

laun·​dry ˈlȯn-drē 

ˈlän-

plural laundries

1

: clothes or linens that have been or are to be laundered

2

: a place where laundering is done

Etymology

from an obsolete word launder (noun) "one who washes clothes," derived from early French lavandier (or lavandiere) "a man (or woman) who washes clothes," from Latin lavandus "needing to be washed," from lavare "to wash" — related to lavatory, lavish, lotion