clotheshorse

[klohz-hawrs, klohth z-]

noun

Informal. a person whose chief interest and pleasure is dressing fashionably.
a frame on which to hang wet laundry for drying.

Origin of clotheshorse

First recorded in 1765–75; clothes + horse

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for clothes-horse

Historical Examples of clothes-horse

She washed and rinsed the garments, and, opening a clothes-horse, spread them out to dry.
Meadow Grass
Alice Brown
I was so proud I had cold chills, and I walked like a clothes-horse on castors.
The Confessions of a Daddy
Ellis Parker Butler
No, no, said Tootles hastily; Flick is only a clothes-horse for the time being.
The Woman Gives
Owen Johnson
A Horse so good at washing clothes, A clothes-horse might be called, I s'pose.
Curious Creatures
Anonymous
Briggs—Well, then, get me a clothes-horse and a couple of sheets.
The Wit and Humor of America, Volume II. (of X.)
Various

British Dictionary definitions for clothes-horse

clotheshorse

noun

a frame on which to hang laundry for drying or airing
informal a dandy

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

Word Origin and History for clothes-horse

also clothes horse, "upright wooden frame for hanging clothes to dry," 1788, from clothes + horse (n.). Figurative sense of "person whose sole function seems to be to show off clothes" is 1850.