dry sink

noun

1. a wooden kitchen sink, especially of the 19th century, not connected to an external water supply, with a shallow zinc- or tin-lined well on top in which a dishpan can be placed, and usually a cupboard below.

Word History and Origins

Origin of dry sink¹

First recorded in 1950–55

Example Sentences

I shared Bereket’s curiosity when I peered inside some of the abandoned homesteads, using a Pentax camera to capture the way shoes curl into themselves over time or the way a steel pot was still carefully placed next to a long dry sink as if it had been washed yesterday.

From Los Angeles Times

Ringing her hair into the dry sink, she asked, “Where’s your pa going?”

From Literature

A small potbellied stove took up one corner, and next to it was a dry sink under a window that looked out to the sea.

From Literature

At night she and her daughter lit the house with candles and kerosene lamps; they warmed themselves and cooked with wood and coal, pumped kitchen water into a dry sink through a pipeline from a well and lived pretty much as though progress was a word that meant walking a little farther on down the road.

From Literature

Slowly, it seemed to Milkman, she walked over to a shelf that hung over the dry sink, put the geography book on it, and removed a knife.

From Literature