A frame or stand used to hang and dry clothes, or a person who is excessively interested in fashion and wearing stylish clothes.
From clothes + horse (a frame or stand resembling a sawhorse). First used literally in the 1500s-1600s for the wooden drying frame; the metaphorical meaning (fashion-obsessed person) developed in the 1800s.
Calling someone a 'clotheshorse' captures a historical moment when having many fashionable clothes was a sign of wealth and leisure—but the metaphor's slightly negative tone reveals that vanity about dress has always been viewed with some skepticism.
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