First recorded in 1765–75
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"The keys of the bathing-machine, or—?" he asked innocently, looking from the sea to the town.
From The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories by Blackwood, Algernon
The journey was performed in a conveyance closely resembling a bathing-machine, which accommodated six people, and was drawn by four mules.
From Forty-one years in India From Subaltern To Commander-In-Chief by Roberts, Frederick Sleigh
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
But far worse was to happen when Bill presently carried off the great cup for remaining shut up in a bathing-machine with twelve vaccinated children for twelve hours.
From Bill the Minder by Robinson, W. Heath (William Heath)
The lovely, lonely bays on the blue Solent, innocent of lodging-house or bathing-machine, succeeded each other from Yarmouth to the Needles.
From Tennyson and His Friends 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
This booth, about as large as the bathing machine common to our seaside resorts, was situate in the centre of the camp.
From Sixteen Months in Four German Prisons Wesel, Sennelager, Klingelputz, Ruhleben by Mahoney, Henry Charles
Immediately the royal person "became immersed beneath the waves" a band, concealed in a bathing machine struck up "God save Great George our King."
From Wanderings in Wessex An Exploration of the Southern Realm from Itchen to Otter by Holmes, Edric
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.
