washboard

washboard noun: a board with a corrugated surface against which laundry may be rubbed. Also the ellipsis of washboard abs.

Noun

washboard (plural washboards)

A board with a corrugated surface against which laundry may be rubbed.
- Numerous washing machines have been invented to save the fair sex from the severe labor of the Wash-board.1847, editorial staff, “Washing Machine”, in Scientific American, series 1, Volume 3, Issue 9, page 68
Such a board used as a simple percussion instrument.
A board fastened along a ship's gunwale to prevent splashing; a splashboard.
A stretch of ripples or bumps on a dirt or gravel road caused by interaction between traffic and road surface.
- washboard road
- It's a rough trip no matter how you come, for these washboard roads will loosen up even brandnew cars pretty fast; and hitchhikers always find the going bad.1948, Truman Capote, Other Voices, Other Rooms, Part One, 1
(colloquial) A flat-chested woman.
- He slowly raised his head to look at me. "Shut it, washboard." "Huh?!" Here I was trying to comfort him, and what did I get for my troubles? An insult.2022 November 18, Saitosa, Oversummoned, Overpowered, and Over It! Volume 2, J-Novel Club, →ISBN
(dated) Baseboard; skirting board.

washboard (third-person singular simple present washboards, present participle washboarding, simple past and past participle washboarded)

To produce a rippled texture on a surface.
- Doug came up with a half-guilty smile and washboarded his forehead at her.1967, James Jones, Go to the Widow-Maker, page 515
- The rip that was generated by each change of tide had scoured the bottom white and washboarded the sand where it was still layered over the hardpan coral floor.1992, Ocean Realm, page 17
To play a washboard.
- It's almost as if the urge to washboard is intrinsically human.2008, The New Yorker, page 28
(bees) To move up and down or back and forth across the surface of a hive, possibly to lay down a layer of propolis and wax.
- Individual bees have been observed washboarding on the inside glass of an observation hive.2015, James E. Tew, The Beekeeper's Problem Solver, →ISBN, page 73
- This behaviour is believed to be associated with general cleaning activities but under what circumstances workers washboard is not known.2015, Robert Owen, The Australian Beekeeping Manual, →ISBN, page 19-51

washboard is also the ellipsis of washboard abs.

As I jump in, he spins out and takes off up the road in the direction the plane came from, bouncing dangerously over washboards and ruts.2009, Chinle Miller, Desert Rats: Adventures in the American Outback, page 35:
The low bass brruummmp of 20-mm slugs going out washboarded the bulkheads.1997, David Poyer, The Passage: A Thriller, →ISBN:
She drove as fast as she dared, braking for the frost heaves that washboarded the blacktop and on her dirt road, bouncing in and out of the clay ruts cut by the flow of runoff.2001, Phoebe:

Noun
plural	washboards
Verb
third-person singular present	washboards
present participle	washboarding
past participle	washboarded
past	washboarded

From wash + board.

What does washboard mean?: Washboard means a board with a corrugated surface against which laundry may be rubbed.
How do you use washboard in a sentence?: As I jump in, he spins out and takes off up the road in the direction the plane came from, bouncing dangerously over washboards and ruts.
What part of speech is washboard?: Washboard can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of washboard?: The plural of washboard is washboards.

Adapted from Wiktionary: washboard (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-washboard.wav.

Cite this entry: “washboard.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/washboard. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.