buck-basket

English

Noun

buck-basket (plural buck-baskets)

1. (obsolete) A basket in which clothes are carried to be washed.
   • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v]:

     Falstaff. […] they conveyed me into a buck-basket.
     Ford. A buck-basket!
     Falstaff. By the Lord, a buck-basket! rammed me in with foul shirts and smocks, socks, foul stockings, greasy napkins […]

   • 1691, Thomas d’Urfey, Love for Money, or, The Boarding School‎^[1], London: J. Hindmarsh, act II, scene 2, page 21:

     Iane, let the Buck-basket be got ready for the foul-cloaths, de’e hear, and bid the Landress take care to mend all the shifts; these great Ramping-girles do so tear their Linnen, it almost makes me wilde.

References

• “buck-basket”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.