noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A rope or cord tied up outdoors to hang clothes on so they can dry.

   "Hang this towel out on the clothesline for me."

2. 2
   a cord on which clothes are hung to dry wordnet
3. 3
   A structure with multiple cords for the same purpose, such as a Hills hoist.
4. 4
   The act of knocking a person over by striking his or her upper body or neck with one's arm, as if he or she had run into a low clothesline. Canada, US, informal

Verb

1. 1
   To knock (a person) over by striking them across the neck or upper body with an outstretched arm, mimicking the motion of running into a low clothesline. Canada, US, informal, transitive

   "The referee called a personal foul, when he clotheslined the running back."

Synonyms

All synonyms

washing linewashing line

Example

More examples

"Tom hung the three pairs of wet jeans on the clothesline."

Etymology

From clothes + line.

Related phrases

hills hoist

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.