bathing-machine

American  

[bey-thing-muh-sheen] / ˈbeɪ ðɪŋ məˌʃin /

noun

1. a small bathhouse on wheels formerly used as a dressing room and in which bathers could also be transported from the beach to the water.

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bathing machine British  

/ ˈbeɪðɪŋ /

noun

1. a small hut, on wheels so that it could be pulled to the sea, used in the 18th and 19th centuries for bathers to change their clothes

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Etymology

Origin of bathing-machine

First recorded in 1765–75

Example Sentences

But I confess to a shrinking sense of the incompleteness of the prescribed fig-leaves as I stand in the door of the bathing-machine at Tenby.

From Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 22, August, 1878 by Various

It was emphatically a quiet place, with its few neat lodging-houses and humble shops, one solitary bathing-machine, and a couple of pleasure boats now hauled up high and dry.

From Amos Huntingdon by Wilson, Theodore P.

Someone was thumping on the door of my bathing-machine.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 159, 1920-09-01 by Various

A G. B. T. cart once married a bathing-machine, and they called the child tum-tum.

From From Sea to Sea Letters of Travel by Kipling, Rudyard

A bathing-machine boy comes trotting his horse through the water, and, backing up by the rock on which the distressed lady stands, bids her get on.

From Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 22, August, 1878 by Various