Clothes horse: Difference between revisions

[[Image:Clotheshorse.jpg|right|thumb|A clothes horse]]

The term "'''<nowiki/>'clothes [[horse]]''''" is used to refer to a portable frame upon which wet [[laundry]] is hung to dry by [[evaporation]]. The frame is usually made of wood,<ref>{{cite web |title=A Comprehensive Guide to Clothes Horse |url=https://www.lifestyleclotheslines.com.au/pages/comprehensive-guide-clothes-horse#4400176 |website=Lifestyle Clotheslines |access-date=26 June 2024}}</ref> metal or plastic. It is a cheap low-tech piece of [[laundry]] equipment, as opposed to a [[clothes dryer]], which requires electricity to operate, or a [[Hills Hoist]], which requires ample space, wind and fine weather. It also served as an alternative to an [[airing cupboard]]. In cold, damp seasons and in the absence of central heating, a clothes horse placed by a fireside or a kitchen range provides a place to warm clothing before putting it on. The practice of airing, once ubiquitous in Great Britain, for example, in the constant battle against damp and mold, has become far less common with the advent of central heating and affordable clothes dryers.<ref>{{Cite web|title="Airing" clothes - necessary or just extra work? {{!}} Mumsnet|url=https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/3346283-Airing-clothes-necessary-or-just-extra-work|access-date=2021-07-31|website=www.mumsnet.com|language=en|archive-date=2021-07-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210731125053/https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/3346283-Airing-clothes-necessary-or-just-extra-work|url-status=live}}</ref>

Other names for this device include a '''clothes rack''', '''drying horse''', '''clothes maiden''', '''drying rack''', '''scissor rack''', '''garment donkey''', '''drying stand''', '''airer''', or (Scots) Winter Dyke.<ref name=DLSdyke>{{cite web|title=DYKE, DIKE, n. and v.|url=http://www.dsl.ac.uk/getent4.php?plen=16546&startset=10317947&query=DYKE&fhit=Dyke&dregion=form&dtext=snd#fhit|work=Dictionary of the Scots Language|publisher=Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd|accessdate=8 January 2013}}{{dead link|date=September 2022}}</ref>

The term ''clothes horse'' can be used to describe men and womenpeople who are passionate about clothing and always appear in public dressed in the latest styles. From 1850 the term referred to a male [[fop]] or female [[Dandy#Quaintrelle|quaintrelle]], a person whose main function is, or appears to be, to wear or show off clothes.<ref name=OED>Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., documents use of "clothes horse" in 1807, and "human clothes horse" in 1850</ref> In this context, the term is similar to "[[fashion plate]]", which originally referred to a [[lithography|lithograph]] illustration of fashionable clothing in a book or magazine.

''Clothes horse'' can also be used to describe men or womenpeople who are employed primarily to display clothing.<ref>{{cite book |title=New Oxford Thesaurus of English |editor-last1=Hanks |editor-first1=Patrick |date=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=0-19-860261-8 |quote= mannequin ''noun'' 2. ''mannequins on the catwalk'' MODEL, fashion model, supermodel; ''informal'' clothes horse}}</ref> The term is often used pejoratively, for example to imply that an actor or actress has been cast in a role primarily to [[Model (person)|show off]] costumes rather than for theirhis or her acting ability.