laundress

noun

laun·​dress ˈlȯn-drəs How to pronounce laundress (audio)
ˈlän-
: a woman who is a laundry worker

Examples of laundress in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Your mother used the napkin rings to lighten the load of the laundress (who, for all Miss Manners knows, may have been your mother herself). Judith Martin, Mercury News, 19 Aug. 2025 Another must-see stop is the Rose Cottage, the former home of Adeline Rose, a woman who was born into slavery, yet managed to save enough money from her job as a laundress to construct this house for herself and her children. Lisa Cericola, Southern Living, 2 Aug. 2025 Sophie was working as a laundress at a federal boarding school in Pine Ridge when federal troops massacred some 250 Native people at nearby Wounded Knee in 1890. Smithsonian Magazine, 29 Apr. 2025 Degas is doing his milliners and laundresses and ballet dancers. Chadd Scott, Forbes.com, 12 Apr. 2025 See All Example Sentences for laundress

Word History

First Known Use

1550, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of laundress was in 1550

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Cite this Entry

“Laundress.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/laundress. Accessed 10 Sep. 2025.

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