washstand

English

Etymology

From wash +‎ stand.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

washstand (plural washstands)

1. (furniture) A table containing a basin and a pitcher of water for washing.

   Synonym: commode

   • 1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 70:

     The less quality the more saleable they were. An abhorrent-looking stained oak wash-stand with a marble top and inset tiles, or a sideboard with bevelled mirrors in the back, or an enamelled wardrobe with stamped wood panels were much preferred to comparatively innocuous examples of the same articles in plain wood.

2. (dated) In a stable or garage, a place in the floor prepared so that carriages or automobiles may be washed there and the water run off.
   • 1916, Horseless Age: The Automobile Trade Magazine:

     Washstand in an Electric Garage. […] In a few garages arrangements are made for washing cars in any position on the storage floor, so that it is not necessary to move them on to and off the washrack.

Synonyms

• washhand-stand

Coordinate terms

• (table): dry sink

Related terms

• nightstand (sometimes coinstantial)

Translations

table for washing

• Arabic: مَغْسَلَة f (maḡsala)
• Catalan: rentamans (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 盥洗臺 / 盥洗台 (guànxǐtái), 臉盆架 / 脸盆架 (liǎnpénjià)

• Dutch: wastafel (nl) f
• Finnish: pesuteline, pesupöytä
• German: Waschtisch (de) m
• Hungarian: mosdóállvány (hu)
• Italian: porta catino m, porta bacinella m
• Russian: умыва́льная (ru) f (umyválʹnaja), умыва́льня (ru) f (umyválʹnja)

Further reading

• washstand on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Washstand in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)