laundress

American  

[lawn-dris, lahn-] / ˈlɔn drɪs, ˈlɑn- /

noun

1. a woman whose work is the washing and ironing of clothes, linens, etc.

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laundress British  

/ ˈlɔːndrɪs /

noun

1. a woman who launders clothes, sheets, etc, for a living

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Gender

See -ess.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• underlaundress
  noun

Etymology

Origin of laundress

1540–50; obsolete launder launderer ( see launder) + -ess

Example Sentences

Ethel Waters in 1949 became the second Black performer to score an Oscar nomination as an illiterate Southern laundress in “Pinky.”

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 8, 2024

Folding the napkin might also indicate that your family did not have a laundress, so the napkins were used for several meals before washing, but that is hardly what one would call low-class.

From Washington Post • Feb. 6, 2023

Reid was born Dec. 2, 1939, the son of an alcoholic hard-rock miner who killed himself at 58 and a mother who served as a laundress in a bordello.

From Seattle Times • Dec. 28, 2021

Her father was later a caretaker and her mother a laundress and the owner of a boardinghouse.

From New York Times • Nov. 28, 2021

“I’ll take her for my helper,” the laundress said.

From "Ella Enchanted" by Gail Carson Levine