Plural of clothesline; ropes or wires stretched between two points to hang wet laundry for drying, or to strike someone forcefully across the neck (in wrestling or sports).
From clothes + line. The clothesline emerged as laundry technology improved in the 1800s and became ubiquitous by the early 1900s; the verb meaning 'to strike' developed from sports terminology.
Clotheslines were once essential infrastructure in every household and neighborhood—their presence defined residential streets with their web of drying laundry. The death of the clothesline in suburban America tells the story of electricity, fossil fuels, and changing labor patterns.
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