maiden

1) A washerwoman's dolly.

The OED suggests that 'maiden' was a washerwoman's 'dolly', a northern dialect word, and quotes The Gentleman’s Magazine where it waws said c.1752 that the term A Yorkshire Maiden referred to a machine for washing linen. West Riding glossaries later call the ‘machine’ a ‘dolly’ or ‘peggy’

that is a wooden instrument which resembled a small stool on the end of a spade-like handle. This agitated the linen or other washing in a tub, and the implement is listed in late inventories: 1799 tubs, churn, maiden tub, Cartworth

1800 maidening tub, Cartworth.

spellings maiden tub

Related Content Loading...

Photo by Kreuzschnabel CC BY-SA 3.0