washing
n. uncountablen. clothes, sheets, or towels that need to be cleaned, are being cleaned, or have just been cleaned. You usually do this in a machine or by hand with soap and water.
n. items of clothing, bed linen, or other textiles that are currently being laundered or have recently been washed. Often used collectively to refer to the entire load of laundry.
I need to hang the washing out to dry.
She spent the entire Saturday morning doing the washing and folding the clean clothes.
The sudden afternoon rainstorm forced the neighbors to rush outside and rescue their washing from the line before it became soaked again.
From Middle English waschynge, weschynge, from Old English weasċing, wæsċing (attested in weasċingweġ), from Proto-West Germanic *waskingu, equivalent to wash + -ing. Cognate with Saterland Frisian Waaskenge (“washing”), West Frisian wasking (“washing”), Dutch wassing (“washing”), German Waschung (“washing”).
From Middle English waschyng, wasschynge, wasschinge, wesschinge, wassende, from Old English wasċende, wæsċende, from Proto-West Germanic waskandī, from Proto-Germanic waskandz (“washing”), present participle of Proto-Germanic *waskaną (“to wash”), equivalent to wash + -ing. Cognate with Dutch wassend, German waschend, Swedish vaskande.
Commonly used in British and Australian English where American English would prefer 'laundry'.