Tubbable
[TUB-ə-bəl]
Part of speech: adjective
Origin: English, 20th century
1.
(Especially of fabric or clothes) Suitable for washing in a tub or washing machine.
Examples of Tubbable in a sentence
"Anna owns many fancy gowns, and none of them is tubbable."
"The clothes in the washer are all tubbable, but some must be hung up to dry."
About Tubbable
“Tubbable” was formed in English by adding the suffix “-able” to the noun “tub,” referring to a laundry-washing tub.
Did you Know?
Before the invention of the washing machine, laundry had to be soaked in hot water before being beaten and scrubbed by hand, then rinsed. It was a lengthy and labor-intensive process, but inventors began patenting washing machines in the 17th century. By the 20th century, the washing machine — often a large tub with machinery attached to it — was a common household appliance. Clothes that were sturdy enough to be washed by machine were therefore called “tubbable.” The first recorded use of the word is in the 1920s, and it was a common synonym for “machine washable” into the 1980s. Today, as more clothing fabrics are tubbable by default, the term is used instead to describe children’s toys that can be used in the bath.
