dhobi, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

dhobi n.

also dhobee, dhobie, dhoby, dobie

[Hind. ???? (dhob?) a washerman]

(orig. Anglo-Ind.)

1. a washerwoman or -man.

1832		Egan Bk of Sports 158: Their tout ensemble something Europeanized by the frilled shirts of their masters borrowed from the Dhobee.
1836		[W.H. Sleeman] 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.
1845		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).
1847		C. Campbell Rough Recollections I 138: He followed up his unwelcome Interruption with, ‘Sar, Dobie come; Dobie want?’.
1854		E.R. Sullivan Bungalow or Tent 34: In all Eastern hotels the Dobies, or washermen [...] wander about [...] picking up indifferently a stray shirt.
1857		Stirling Observer 26 Nov. 4/6: Dhobee, H. (dhobi) a washerwoman.
1857		S. Kelly 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.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 121: DOBIE, an Indian washerman [...] in this country, Anglo-Indians speak of a washerwoman as a dobie.
1867		J.T. Newall 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.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1875		‘Aliph Cheem’ Lays of Ind (1905) 155: Mahlee, dhobie, cook, horsekeeper, / Each were to the chokee sent.
1876		[H.J. Suckling] Ceylon 400: The washermen [...] are called ‘Dobys,’ a name imported from India.
1877		H. Hartigan 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.
1884		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.
1886		Yule & Burnell Hobson-Jobson (1996) 312/2: dhoby, dobie, s. A washerman; H. dhob?; [from dhon?, Skt. dh?v, ‘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.
1893		Pall Mall Gaz. 1 Nov. 3/1: Her own washing is done for her by the dhobi.
1903		Manchester Courier 12 Dec. 14/2: The dhobi, or Indian washerwoman, is being replaced by regular laundries.
1906		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.
1906		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.
1911		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.
1915		Western Times 19 Jan. 6/2: Your washerwoman is a dhobi.
1927		Western Daily Press 20 Dec. 5/3: My dhobi came with the washing and a huge winged cockroach jumped out of his bag.
1935		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.
1996		A.R. Badami 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.
2001		C. Lee Eight Bells & Top Masts 16: Those apprentices, those cadets, soon knew their chota peg from their dhobi wallah.
2002		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.
2012		P. Sharma 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.
[2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 45: Ye been takin the dhobi [i.e. the washing] up the Bendix again, Mrs Curran].

2. (Aus.) a bathe or wash.

1974		J. McNeil How Does Your Garden Grow Act III: senior: Have a wash! [...] Have it twice! sam: Yessir! A double dobie, sir!
1983		R. Aven-Bray Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 25: Dhobi Bathe.
2019		P. Baker Fabulosa 291/1: dhobie, dohbie [...] 2.washing .
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 330: ‘All you need is a bona dhobi, my chovis’.

In compounds

dhobi itch (n.)

a skin disease allegedly contracted from laundered garments; usu. equated with ringworm.

1874		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.
1899		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.
1904		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.
1914		Honolulu Star-Bulletin (Oahu, HI) 28 Mar. 8/5: We had dhobi itch once.
1927		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.
1933		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.
1999		Observer Rev. 25 July 16: Ratweasels with Hugo Boss suits and dhobi itch.

dhobi-khazi (n.)

(Polari) the laundry room.

2023

R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 109: We’d take our grotty work schmutta down to the dhobi-khazi, then transform ourselves [...] to ultra-illuminated sparklets.