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.
It’s hardly the time of year for a romance to end in a bathing-machine.
From The Lunatic at Large by Clouston, J. Storer (Joseph Storer)
There was a bath at the beach toward mid-day, followed by a cold collation in the shelter of a rude chalet, which served the ladies in the absence of the customary bathing-machine.
From In the Footprints of the Padres by Stoddard, Charles Warren
But I confess to a shrinking sense of the incompleteness of the prescribed fig-leaves as I stand in the door of the bathing-machine at Tenby.
From Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 22, August, 1878 by Various
I gazed along the shore in each direction, hoping to discover a bathing-machine, and so satisfy myself that the island was inhabited.
From Bill the Minder by Robinson, W. Heath (William Heath)
That the shore is a place of recreation for all but the bathing-machine horse.
From Mr. Punch at the Seaside 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
I took the whole terrace forthwith, speedily instituted a bathing machine fitted up as an ambulance to meet the down-train, and here I am in three months literally turning patients away.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 146, March 4th 1914 by Various
European patents from the first half of the 19th century reveal that a bathing machine could be a contraption in which an individual bathed in privacy.
From Women's Bathing and Swimming Costume in the United States by Kidwell, Claudia B.
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.
