I was looking for a word to use for clothes I recently washed, the equivalent of Italian bucato.
Google Translate gives me three words:
- Laundry
- Washing
- Wash
Looking at the OALD, it seems that laundry would be the correct word. The dictionary says that laundry is a synonym of washing, but when I look for washing, it says that washing is used to mean "clothes, sheets, etc. that are waiting to be washed, being washed or have just been washed" only in British English. (BrE is shown between parentheses before that definition.)
For wash, the meaning the dictionary gives and that is closer to what I want to say is "(especially BrE) an act of cleaning somebody/something using water and usually soap."
Can I use wash when talking of something that I recently washed?
Best Answer
In the U.S., at least, either "laundry" or "wash" would convey your meaning. I think "laundry" is more commonly used. Either can mean the clothes themselves, or a place or state where clothes go for the cleaning process.
"Please put your dirty clothes in the laundry."
"Please put your dirty clothes in the wash."
"I put the laundry in the washing machine."
"Sally folded the laundry."
"Put the laundry away."
But once you put it in the drawer or hang it in the closet, it's not laundry any more; it's just clothes!