laundry list

American

noun

Informal.

a lengthy, especially random list of items.

a laundry list of hoped-for presents; a laundry list of someone's crimes.

laundry list British

noun

a list of items perceived as being long

a laundry list of complaints

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of laundry list

First recorded in 1955–60

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Hanna grew up in St. Louis and attended Amherst College, graduating with a degree in English Literature and a laundry list of sports injuries.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 29, 2026

Judging by the laundry list of musicians who flocked to the Hotel Cafe in those early years, his hunch was spot-on.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 30, 2025

It also features a laundry list of ambitious goals that Tesla will need to meet.

From MarketWatch • Oct. 14, 2025

The trust fund that pays awards, for instance, could run out of money if the government made it easy for Kennedy’s laundry list of common health problems to qualify for payments from the fund.

From Salon • Jul. 17, 2025

I thought they would launch at him a laundry list of all the things that have been going on, but they seemed uncomfortable when they tried to talk about me to a stranger.

From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023