dhobi n.
1. a washerwoman or -man.
![]() | Bk of Sports 158: Their tout ensemble something Europeanized by the frilled shirts of their masters borrowed from the Dhobee. | |
![]() | Ramaseeana 133: The Thugs engaged in the expedition do not till the seventh day [...] shave, nor allow their clothes to be washed by a dhoby. | |
![]() | Reading Mercury 22 Feb. 4/6: The British Army in India [...] One sergeant, one corporal and fourteen privates [...] served by a clashy (tent striker), a behishty (water-carrier) and a dhoby (washerwoman). | |
![]() | Rough Recollections I 138: He followed up his unwelcome Interruption with, ‘Sar, Dobie come; Dobie want?’. | |
![]() | Bungalow or Tent 34: In all Eastern hotels the Dobies, or washermen [...] wander about [...] picking up indifferently a stray shirt. | |
![]() | Stirling Observer 26 Nov. 4/6: Dhobee, H. (dhobi) a washerwoman. | |
![]() | Life of Mrs Sherwood 283: In his place we took other servants, Dirges, and Dobes, and a Sais for Mr Sherwood, who now got a pony, and I had a tonjon, or open palanquin, in which I rode. | |
, , | ![]() | Sl. Dict. 121: DOBIE, an Indian washerman [...] in this country, Anglo-Indians speak of a washerwoman as a dobie. |
![]() | Hog Hunting in the East 380: On looking round for the dhobie, that person was nowhere to be seen. He had made the best use of his legs and disappeared in the jungle. | |
![]() | Sl. Dict. | |
![]() | Lays of Ind (1905) 155: Mahlee, dhobie, cook, horsekeeper, / Each were to the chokee sent. | |
![]() | Ceylon 400: The washermen [...] are called ‘Dobys,’ a name imported from India. | |
![]() | Stray Leaves (1st ser.) 182: [T]he various articles of which it was composed looked as rumpled [...] as if they had not passed through the hands of a dhoby. | |
![]() | Civil & Milit. Gaz. (Lahore) 19 Aug. 3/3: [I]n washing this khaki, only soda should be used, and not the mixture called sujji by dhobies. | |
![]() | Hobson-Jobson (1996) 312/2: dhoby, dobie, s. A washerman; H. dhobī; [from dhonā, Skt. dhāv, ‘to wash.’] In colloquial Anglo-Indian use all over India. A common H. proverb runs: [...] ‘Like a Dhoby’s dog belonging neither to the house nor to the river side.’ [Dhoby’s itch is a troublesome cutaneous disease supposed to be communicated by clothes from the wash, and Dhoby’s earth is a whitish-grey sandy efflorescence, found in many places, from which by boiling and the addition of quicklime an alkali of considerable strength is obtained. | |
![]() | Pall Mall Gaz. 1 Nov. 3/1: Her own washing is done for her by the dhobi. | |
![]() | Manchester Courier 12 Dec. 14/2: The dhobi, or Indian washerwoman, is being replaced by regular laundries. | |
![]() | Civil & Milit. Gaz. (Lahore) 18 Jan. 9/1: [advert] FOR INDIAN RINGWORM. Itching Piles, Eczema, Dhobies Itch, and every Irritating Skin k;omplaint, Doan's Ointment is a sure and lasting cure. | |
![]() | Civil & Milit. Gaz. (Lahore) 16 Nov. 5/4: [T]ake the dhobie who swears on his Koran, that he only washes for you. Well you may be sure that in the first place that is a tarrydiddle. | |
![]() | Civil & Milit. Gaz. (Lahore) 26 Aug. 17/1: [advert] KAKOMI COTTON GOODS. They last a long while—cost little—look well—colour won’t run—and will successfully withstand the severest Dhobi Treatment. | |
![]() | Western Times 19 Jan. 6/2: Your washerwoman is a dhobi. | |
![]() | Western Daily Press 20 Dec. 5/3: My dhobi came with the washing and a huge winged cockroach jumped out of his bag. | |
![]() | Babujee Writes Home 24: Dhobies treatment has been rather objectionable which the Gentlemen and Ladies [...] getting backs their clothes neither preparing washed not on the promised date and sometimes absolutely spoiled or lost. | |
![]() | Tamarind Woman (2002) 49: She [...] yelled at the dhobhi for putting so much starch in my frocks that the cloth scratched Baby-missy’s skin. | |
![]() | Eight Bells & Top Masts 16: Those apprentices, those cadets, soon knew their chota peg from their dhobi wallah. | |
![]() | Times of India (New Delhi) 17 Nov. 🌐 Every home in this village, be it that of the village ‘dhobi’ or the richest tobacco farmer, has lost money. | |
![]() | Love, Life & a Beer Can! 132: Any grocery shop she happened to visit, her dhobi, her dhobi’s dog, everyone she knew that she was being married. | |
[ | ![]() | (con. 1980s) Skagboys 45: Ye been takin the dhobi [i.e. the washing] up the Bendix again, Mrs Curran]. |
2. (Aus.) a bathe or wash.
![]() | How Does Your Garden Grow Act III: senior: Have a wash! [...] Have it twice! sam: Yessir! A double dobie, sir! | |
![]() | Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 25: Dhobi Bathe. | |
![]() | Fabulosa 291/1: dhobie, dohbie [...] 2.washing . | |
![]() | Man-Eating Typewriter 330: ‘All you need is a bona dhobi, my chovis’. |
In compounds
a skin disease allegedly contracted from laundered garments; usu. equated with ringworm.
![]() | Edinburgh Eve. News 15 Oct. 4/1: A disease, known by the unpleasant name of ‘Dhobie itch’, is spreading among the European community of Bombay. | |
![]() | diary entry 6 Sept. quoted in Reading Mercury 9 Dec. 9/1: I have what is called here the ‘Dhobi itch.’ It raises something like ringworm and is a disease peculiar to the Phillipines. | |
![]() | Times Dispatch (Richmond, VA) 4 Dec. 33/6: The Chinese [...] waited until they got a severe case of ‘dhoby itch’ in one of their laundries, and then selected a dozen garments from the infected ‘wash’ and sent them round to the Japanese laundry. | |
![]() | Honolulu Star-Bulletin (Oahu, HI) 28 Mar. 8/5: We had dhobi itch once. | |
![]() | Western Daily Press 21 Dec. 5/2: A typical variety of ringworm of the body, called dhobie itch, had become quite common [...] since the war. | |
![]() | Western Daily Press 21 Dec. 2/7: Ringworm Among Aircraft Apprentices [...] the commanding officer [...] revealed that an epidemic of tinea cruris (dhobi itch) was stilll prevalent. | |
![]() | Observer Rev. 25 July 16: Ratweasels with Hugo Boss suits and dhobi itch. |
(Polari) the laundry room.
![]() | Man-Eating Typewriter 109: We’d take our grotty work schmutta down to the dhobi-khazi, then transform ourselves [...] to ultra-illuminated sparklets. |