roughdry

English

Etymology

From rough +‎ dry.

Verb

roughdry (third-person singular simple present roughdries, present participle roughdrying, simple past and past participle roughdried)

1. (transitive) In laundry work, to dry without smoothing or ironing.
   • 1906, O. Henry, The Four Million:

     Mr. Seeders was thin and had light hair, and appeared to have been recently roughdried and starched.

   • 1910, “A Successful Wife”, in Everybody's Magazine, volume 23, page 113:

     From Miss Purchase— who nearly killed herself over his shirts, starching and ironing them, and nearly drove me crazy because she roughdried my clothes — down to the blacksmith's where Stephen took his riding horse to be shod, my husband was a general favorite .

   • 1993, Federal personnel manual system:, page 88:

     This includes looading, unloading, and operating controls of machines to wash, dye, starch, roughdry, or condition items for pressing.

2. To dry shaped bricks before they are fired in a kiln.
   • 1999, Dorothy Dunnett, Queens' Play:

     He had a cough which spoke sometimes of roughdried bricks in a builder's yard, and his calf muscles spoiled the particoloured set of his stockings.

Adjective

roughdry (comparative more roughdry, superlative most roughdry)

1. (of laundry) Having been dried but not ironed.
   • 1956, Decisions of the Employees' Compensation Appeals Board, page 526:

     At the time of the injury appellant was operating a flatwork ironer, wheras thereafter her duties were confined solely to the folding of roughdry laundry, a duty which did not involve the same amount of dexterity or physical exertion as the job she was performing at the time of the injury.

   • 1993, Federal personnel manual system:, page 88:

     This includes classifying and marking; shaking out wet laundry; feeding into the flatwork ironer; catching, folding, and stacking ironed flatwork; folding roughdry laundry; sorting by identification number; and wrapping bundles.

   • 2022, Fanny Fern, Ruth Hall:

     My washerwoman, confound her for ironing off my shirt-buttons, says that she wears her clothes roughdry, because she can't afford to pay for both washing and ironing.

2. (of lumber) Having been been sawn, edged, trimmed, and dried, but not surfaced or dressed by planing.
   • 1959, Research Notes - Volume 173, page 2:

     The dry lumber was pulled from the kiln and held in the roughdry shed for a day or two before unstacking.

   • 1964, United States. Congress. House, Hearings - Volume 1, page 310:

     The minimum roughdry thickness of the standard yard board shall be not less than twenty-eight thirty-seconds of an inch, except that 20 percent of a shipment may be not less than twenty-seven thirty-seconds of an inch.

   • 1974, Wayne K. Murphey, ‎Richard N. Jorgensen, Wood as an Industrial Arts Material, page 44:

     The minimum roughdry thickness of finish, common boards, and dimensions of sizes of one or more inches nominal thickness shall be not less than 1/8 inch thicker than the corresponding minimum finished dry thickness, except that 20 percent of a shipment may be not less than 3/32 inch thicker than the corresponding minimum-finished dry thickness .

References

• OED