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clothesline

American  
[klohz-lahyn, klohthz-] / ˈkloʊzˌlaɪn, ˈkloʊðz- /

noun

  1. a strong, narrow rope, cord, wire, etc., usually stretched between two poles, posts, or buildings, on which clean laundry is hung to dry.

clothesline British  
/ ˈkləʊðzˌlaɪn /

noun

  1. a piece of rope, cord, or wire on which clean washing is hung to dry or air

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of clothesline

First recorded in 1820–30; clothes + line 1

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

I use a clothesline on the balcony and a laundromat nearby in case I have an urgent need to dry things.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 21, 2025

Eleven-year-old Arakel is holding his cardboard model of a house with a retractable clothesline.

From BBC • Apr. 27, 2025

“One of the things I did to myself is I didn't want the joke attached to time. If time was like a clothesline, I wanted to do it for as long as ever.”

From Salon • May 22, 2024

We’d clip them to a kind of clothesline that took them down to the composing room.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 27, 2024

But none of those could hold a candle to my troubles, weighing down that clothesline like a sack full of bricks.

From "Wish" by Barbara O'Connor

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.