dolly tub
A large wooden or metal tub used in pre-machine laundry, paired with a 'dolly'—a T-shaped or three-legged wooden agitator plunged up and down to move clothes through soapy water.
Definitions
A large wooden or metal tub used in pre-machine laundry, paired with a 'dolly'—a T-shaped or three-legged wooden agitator plunged up and down to move clothes through soapy water. Common in British working-class households from the 18th century until the spread of electric washing machines in the mid-20th century.
Gran remembered doing the Monday wash in the dolly tub out in the yard, her arms aching from pounding the sheets.
Comments
(UK, regional) A wash tub.
Comments
Used in
Have a better definition?
Add your own interpretation of "dolly tub".
🇬🇧About British & Irish slang slang
UK and Irish slang — Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, Yorkshire, Glaswegian, Brummie, Welsh, West Country, plus Irish English. Centuries of regional dialects feeding into modern British and Irish street talk.
See all British & Irish slang slang on Slangora.
Tags
Other words near "dolly tub" (D)
Browse all slang words starting with D.
Related terms
People also read
Semantically related
- posser60%
(UK) A tool for possing, or agitating laundry in a tub. It usually takes the form a bell shape or a circular plate with holes and vertical handle attached at the centre.
- dolly shop59%
(UK, obsolete) A sweetshop furnished with the gambling device called a dolly.
- dhobying58%
(British, naval) The washing of clothes; laundry.
- dhobying58%
British naval and military slang for doing the laundry — washing your clothes, whether by hand in a bucket or at a shore facility. Dhobying comes from the Hindi word 'dhobi,' a washerman or laundryman, and was carried back to Britain by sailors and soldiers who served in India during the colonial era. The term is still understood in military circles and among older British speakers, and a 'dhoby bucket' is naval slang for a washing bucket.