A clothes horse, sometimes called a clothes rack, drying horse, clothes maiden, drying rack, drying stand, Frostick, airer, or (Scots) winterdyke,[1] is a frame upon which clothes are hung after washing, indoors or outdoors, to dry by evaporation. The frame is usually made of wood, metal or plastic.
Types of drying racks
There are many types of drying racks, including large, stationary outdoor racks, smaller, folding portable racks, and wall-mounted drying racks. A drying rack is similar in usage and function to a clothes line, and used as an alternative to the powered clothes dryer.
A pulley clothes airer, sometimes described as "Victorian", "Edwardian", or "Lancashire", can be loaded and unloaded at a convenient height, and hoisted out of the way to ceiling height while the clothes dry. It comprises two iron frames positioned as far apart as desired to provide a suitable length, with wooden laths, typically four or six, passed through holes in them. The frames are suspended from the ceiling by a system of rope and pulleys. The result is a hoistable rack with several parallel bars on which clothes can be draped out of the way, or hung, extending further down, with clothes hangers. The racks are also used in kitchens, to hang utensils out of the way.[2][3]
Figurative usage
Used figuratively, the single-word term clotheshorse describes men and women 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 quaintrelle, a person whose main function is, or appears to be, to wear or show off clothes.[4]
In this context, the term is similar to "fashion plate," which originally referred to a lithograph illustration of fashionable clothing in a book or magazine.
References
- ^ "DYKE, DIKE, n. and v." Dictionary of the Scots Language. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
- ^ Typical parts available commercially to assemble a pulley airer
- ^ Images found by Google image search for "pulley airer"
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., documents use of "clothes horse" in 1807, and "human clothes horse" in 1850