dishclout, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

dishclout n.

[metonymy; SE dishclout, a kitchen rag]

a dirty, greasy woman; thus a female servant.

1514		Skelton Agenst Garnesche iii line 36: A bawdy dyscheclowte, That bringyth the worlde abowte With hastynge and with polleynge.
1600		Look About You xxviii: Why, she is a very dowdy, A dishclout, a foul gipsey unto thee.
1622		Fletcher Spanish Curate IV vii: Why Maid there, Open I say, and do not anger me [...] When, ye Dish-clout? When do you come?
1765		Caledonian Mercury 9 Sept. 1/2: Plaintiff Daniel [the groom] demanded a sop in the pan. Defendant Dishclout[the cook] insisted on a right of refusal; Daniel seized Dishclout by the left hand [...] Dishclout took Daniel by the right hand, and pulled him into the dripping pan.
1772		Caledonian Mercury 17 June 1/1: [He] was footman in the same house where defendant Dishclout was cook-maid.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1840		E. Howard Jack Ashore I 297: Come, tramp with your dishclout, you fiddle-faced, dog-robbing, trencher-scraper.

make a napkin out of a dishclout (v.) (also ...out of one’s dishclout)

1. to marry a kitchen servant.

1785		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: He has made a napkin of his dishclout, a saying of one who has married his cook maid.
1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

2. by ext. of sense 1, to make a foolish, unsuitable marriage .

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 778/2: from ca. 1750; ob.