Dryers

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A household appliance used to remove moisture from clothes after washing
2. A machine designed to dry textiles, often utilizing heat and tumbling action for effective moisture removal
3. An apparatus for drying garments, usually featuring rotating drums and a heated airflow to expedite the drying process

Etymology: "Dryers" is simply the plural of "dryer," so the history here belongs to the word it is built from. "Dryer" is formed from the verb "dry" with the agent suffix "-er," meaning one that performs the action, so a dryer is literally a thing that dries. "Dry" itself comes from Old English "drigan" or "drygan," and the agent-noun pattern has been used in English since Old English, giving words like "baker" and "singer." The sense of "dryer" as an appliance is much newer. The "-er" form was applied to drying machines in the late 19th century, when clothes wringers and mechanical laundry equipment were becoming common in households and commercial laundries. The tumbling drum design familiar today came later, with electric clothes dryers spreading through American homes in the 1930s and 1940s.

Synonyms: dehydrators, driers

Antonyms: wetters