Clothes horse

A clothes horse is a portable frame, usually made of wood,[1] metal or plastic, upon which wet laundry is hung to dry by evaporation.

Clothes horses are a cheap low-tech type of laundry equipment, as opposed to a clothes dryer, which requires electricity to operate, or a Hills Hoist, which requires ample space, wind and fine weather.

The practice of airing, once ubiquitous in Great Britain, for example, in the constant battle against damp and mold, has become far less common with the advent of central heating and affordable clothes dryers.

From 1850 the term referred to a male fop or female quaintrelle, a person whose main function is, or appears to be, to wear or show off clothes.

[5] The term is often used pejoratively, for example to imply that an actor or actress has been cast in a role primarily to show off costumes rather than for his or her acting ability.