laundry

Noun

laundry (countable and uncountable, plural laundries)

1. A laundering; a washing.
   • In our family of five, we have to do the laundry every other day.
2. A place or room where laundering is done - including, by extension, other forms of laundering than clothes washing.
   • Old Faithful is sometimes degraded by being made a laundry. Garments placed in the crater during quiescence are ejected thoroughly washed when the eruption takes place.1883, Henry J. Winser, The Yellowstone National Park-A Manual for Tourists, New York: G.P. Putnam Sons, page 46
3. That which needs to be, is being, or has been laundered.
   • You've left your dirty laundry all over the house.
   • Q. Did you use to do the washing around your house, too? / The Court: She did all the work of the house, I suppose. / Mr. Feltenstein: That's what I want to find out. / A. I gave the laundry to the laundry. / Q. What? / A. I gave the wash to the laundry.1935, New York Court of Appeals. Records and Briefs., page 69
4. (slang) A penalty flag.
5. A business whose primary purpose is to conceal the origins of money received illegally.