launder

Contracted from Middle English lavender, from Old French lavandiere, from Late Latin lavandena, from Latin lavō (“I wash”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈlɔːndə/
• (some accents) IPA^(key): /ˈlɑːndə(ɹ)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈlɔndɚ/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈlɑndɚ/

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• Rhymes: -ɔːndə(ɹ), -ɑːndə(ɹ)

launder (plural launders)

1. (obsolete) A washerwoman or washerman.
2. (mining) A trough used by miners to receive powdered ore from the box where it is beaten, or for carrying water to the stamps, or other apparatus for comminuting (sorting) the ore.
3. A trough or channel carrying water to the wheel of a watermill.

   Synonym: inlayer

4. A gutter (for rainwater).

• (washerwoman): launderer, laundress, washerwoman

launder (third-person singular simple present launders, present participle laundering, simple past and past participle laundered)

1. To wash; to wash, and to smooth with a flatiron or mangle; to wash and iron.
2. (obsolete) To lave; to wet.
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, “A Louers Complaint”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, OCLC 216596634:

     Oft did she heave her napkin to her eyne, / Which on it had conceited characters, / Laundering the silken figures in the brine

3. (money) To disguise the source of (ill-gotten wealth) by various means.

• money laundering

• launderer
• launderette
• laundress
• laundry
• lave

• launder in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
• launder at OneLook Dictionary Search

• Arundel, lurdane, rundale

launder

1. Alternative form of lavender