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Glite Dictionary
washing day

washing day

1.0
A day when people in a home do their laundry
  • noun
  • Archaic
translation icon : día de lavado
  • Every Monday is washing day in our house, where we tackle all the laundry chores together.

Examples

  • On washing day, the smell of fresh detergent filled the air as the clothes swirled in the machines.

  • I knew nothing of baking or cookery, could not be relied upon to wash the clothes on washing day, nor lay a fire in the kitchen stove.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • It was her washing day.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • She set aside Saturday as her washing day, making sure all the clothes were clean for the week.

Synonyms

washday
vswashing day
1 1.0

A day, usually each week, when people wash clothes

is broader meaning a regular laundry day without specifying weekly timing
wash day
vswashing day
1 1.0

A day for doing the family's laundry

is the same but uses the verb-ing form rather than two words

Surface Forms

washing day singular
washing days plural

Morphology

washing + day

The meaning 'a day designated for doing laundry' is directly and transparently built from 'washing' (the act of cleaning) + 'day' (a day for an activity). The template 'X day' meaning 'a day for X' is common and cross-linguistically regular, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should be able to infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Washing day comes from times when washing clothes was a big, slow job done once a week. Families picked one day to heat water, wash and hang clothes, so washing day came to mean 'the day for doing laundry'.