dishpan hands
dishpan hands noun: hands which are rough, reddish, and dry, as from irritation and chafing caused by immersion in hot water mixed with detergent.
Noun
dishpan hands pl (plural only)
- Hands which are rough, reddish, and dry, as from irritation and chafing caused by immersion in hot water mixed with detergent.
- Avoid dishpan hands. Those 1950s sitcom moms had it right (and probably had lovely hands): Wear rubber gloves while cleaning and doing dishes.2007 February 18, H. E. Thomas, M. Thomas, “5 Ways to Combat Cold-Weather Hands”, in Washington Post, retrieved 30 Jul 2009
Origin of dishpan hands
Possibly coined circa mid-1920s for the advertising of Lever Brothers "Lux" brand dishwashing soap.
Questions about dishpan hands
- What does dishpan hands mean?
- Dishpan hands means hands which are rough, reddish, and dry, as from irritation and chafing caused by immersion in hot water mixed with detergent.
- What part of speech is dishpan hands?
- Dishpan hands is a noun.
Words near dishpan hands in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dishpan hands (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-dishpan hands.ogg.
Cite this entry: “dishpan hands.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dishpan_hands. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.