washer

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. One who washes: a washer of clothes; a washer of windows.
2. n. An appliance used for washing, especially:
3. n. A washing machine.
4. n. An automatic dishwasher.
5. n. A flat disk, as of metal, plastic, rubber, or leather, placed beneath a nut or at an axle bearing or a joint to relieve friction, prevent leakage, or distribute pressure.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. One who or that which washes: as, a washer of clothes; a dish-washer; a wool-washer.
2. n. An annular piece of leather, rubber, metal, or other material placed at a joint in a water-pipe or faucet to make the joint tight and prevent leakage, or over a bolt, or a similar piece upon which a nut may be screwed. Washers serve as cushions or packing between many parts of machines, rails, vehicles, and iron structures. When used in buildings at the ends of tie-rods, they are often of large size and diverse shapes, and are called specifically wall-washers. Some forms are used as locks, to prevent a nut from shaking loose, as in a railroad fish-plate. Such washers are made in the shape of a spring, to allow a certain amount of vibration without disturbing the nut. See lock-nut, and cuts under bolt, packing, and plug-cock.
3. n. A similar article forming an ornament, as at the socket or pin that holds any adjustable utensil: as, the mother-of-pearl washers of a fan. Compare rosette.
4. n. In paper manufacturing, a straining-and-washing machine used in the process of cleaning rags, to bring them to a pulpy condition; a beating-engine.
5. n. In plumbing, the outlet of a cistern. It includes the pipe, the joint or union, and the plug, as for a basin.
6. n. A washing-machine: as, a clothes-washer, window-washer, gold-washer.
7. n. In coal-mining (short for coal-washer), any machine for washing coal. In the Pennsylvania anthracite region the coal is sometimes washed by jets of water, and separated from the slate, pyrites, and other refuse by jigging. The number of machines which have been invented in different countries for washing coal is very great, but most of them are based on some form or modification of the jig of the metal-miner.
8. n. The wagtail, a bird. Also dish-washer, peggy dish-washer, moll-washer, molly or polly wash dish, washtail, nanny washtail, etc. See cut under wagtail.
9. n. The wash-bear.
10. To fit with washers.

Wiktionary

1. n. Something that washes; especially an appliance such as a washing machine or dishwasher.
2. n. A person who washes for a living; (if female:) a washerwoman.
3. n. A flat disk, placed beneath a nut or at some joint, to distribute pressure, alleviate friction or prevent leakage.
4. n. A face cloth.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. One who, or that which, washes.
2. n. A ring of metal, leather, or other material, or a perforated plate, used for various purposes, as around a bolt or screw to form a seat for the head or nut, or around a wagon axle to prevent endwise motion of the hub of the wheel and relieve friction, or in a joint to form a packing, etc.
3. n. (Plumbing) A fitting, usually having a plug, applied to a cistern, tub, sink, or the like, and forming the outlet opening.
4. n. (Zoöl.) The common raccoon.
5. n. (Zoöl.), Prov. Eng. Same as Washerwoman, 2.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. seal consisting of a flat disk placed to prevent leakage
2. n. a home appliance for washing clothes and linens automatically
3. n. someone who washes things for a living