Lavabo
noun ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A ritual involving the washing of one's hands at a church's offertory before handling the Eucharist.
- 2 a basin for washing the hands wordnet
- 3 The small towel used to dry the priest's hands following the ritual.
"These small liturgical towels got […] the name of Lavabo cloths or Lavaboes."
- 4 A washbasin, particularly (Christianity) the one in a church used in the ritual.
"[…] the […] pontiff, as he […] moved his hands […] at the Lavabo, or at the various benedictions […]"
- 5 A trough used for washing at some medieval monasteries.
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- 6 A lavatory: a room used for urination and defecation. euphemistic, humorous
"Mr. Pond fussed out and she heard the door of the little lavabo in the passage open with a loud creak."
Example
More examples"These small liturgical towels got […] the name of Lavabo cloths or Lavaboes."
Etymology
From the Christian ritual, which was traditionally accompanied in Catholicism by a recitation of Psalm 25:6 (Psalm 26:6, in the Hebrew and in most modern translations) which in Latin begins with the word lavābō (“I will wash”). The sense of "room with a toilet" developed under the influence of lavatory and lav.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.