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.
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 was emphatically a quiet place, with its few neat lodging-houses and humble shops, one solitary bathing-machine, and a couple of pleasure boats now hauled up high and dry.
From Amos Huntingdon by Wilson, Theodore P.
I say, Jeremiah, if ever I get drowned, mind you rush to the bathing-machine and see if there's a copy of 'Ally Sloper' or 'Tit-Bits'.
From Somehow Good by De Morgan, William Frend
That the shore is a place of recreation for all but the bathing-machine horse.
From Mr. Punch at the Seaside by Various
He had never in his life so much as heard a bo'sun's pipe and could scarcely distinguish a battleship from a bathing-machine.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, 1920-01-14 by Seaman, Owen, Sir
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
How could he, where there was neither seclusion nor bathing machine?
From Humorous Readings and Recitations In prose and verse by Various
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
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.
