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• bathing-machine
  bathing-machine

  noun

  a small bathhouse on wheels formerly used as a dressing room and in which bathers could also be transported from the beach to the water.
• bathing machine
  bathing machine

  noun

  a small hut, on wheels so that it could be pulled to the sea, used in the 18th and 19th centuries for bathers to change their clothes

bathing-machine

American  

[bey-thing-muh-sheen] / ˈbeɪ ðɪŋ məˌʃin /

noun

1. a small bathhouse on wheels formerly used as a dressing room and in which bathers could also be transported from the beach to the water.

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bathing machine British  

/ ˈbeɪðɪŋ /

noun

1. a small hut, on wheels so that it could be pulled to the sea, used in the 18th and 19th centuries for bathers to change their clothes

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Etymology

Origin of bathing-machine

First recorded in 1765–75

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bathing-machine bathing machine

A bathing-machine boy comes trotting his horse through the water, and, backing up by the rock on which the distressed lady stands, bids her get on.

From Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 22, August, 1878 by Various

It’s hardly the time of year for a romance to end in a bathing-machine.

From The Lunatic at Large by J. Storer (Joseph Storer) Clouston

This afternoon, clad in a well-cut flannel suit, and wearing a straw hat, he sat on the steps of a bathing-machine on the beach at Helmstone.

From The New Gulliver and Other Stories by Barry Pain

At one he disappears, presently emerges from a bathing-machine, and may be seen, a kind of salmon-coloured porpoise, splashing about in the ocean.

From The Life of Charles Dickens, Vol. I-III, Complete by John Forster

People wait half the morning for a bathing-machine and then look rather disappointed when they get it.

From Mr. Punch On Tour by Various

More than £30,000 was raised to help build the sauna in the style of a 19th Century bathing machine, which since 2020 has been set up permanently at Walpole Bay.

From BBC ● Feb. 19, 2025

The bathing machine was then rolled or dragged far enough into the surf that the lady could slip directly down its steps and into the water without much risk of being seen thus clothed.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 2, 2022

They wore voluminous bathing costumes and even made use of a peculiar Victorian contraption called the bathing machine, essentially a small wooden or canvas hut on wheels.

From Slate ● Jul. 3, 2015

"Gummy!" he heard the bo'sun's voice near him in the darkness, and above all the din; "she is a blanked old bathing machine, ain't she?"

From The Moving Finger A Trotting Christmas Eve at Warwingie Lost! The Loss of the "Vanity" Dick Stanesby's Hutkeeper The Yanyilla Steeplechase A Digger's Christmas by Mary Gaunt

By this time, Ethelbertha had taken a dislike to the yacht; she said that, personally, she would rather be spending a week in a bathing machine, seeing that a bathing machine was at least steady.

From Three Men on the Bummel by Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka) Jerome