clothesline

• clothes line (UK)

clothes +‎ line

• (UK) enPR: klōthz'līn, IPA^(key): /ˈkləʊðzlaɪn/

  • Audio (Southern England)

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• (US) enPR: klōthz'līn, IPA^(key): /ˈkloʊðzlaɪn/

clothesline (plural clotheslines)

1. A rope or cord tied up outdoors to hang clothes on so they can dry.

   Synonym: washing line

   Coordinate term: clotheshorse

   Hang this towel out on the clothesline for me.

2. A structure with multiple cords for the same purpose, such as a Hills hoist.
3. (Canada, US, informal) The act of knocking a person over by striking his or her upper body or neck with one's arm, as if he or she had run into a low clothesline.

clothesline (third-person singular simple present clotheslines, present participle clotheslining, simple past and past participle clotheslined)

1. (Canada, US, informal, transitive) To knock (a person) over by striking his or her upper body or neck with one's arm, as if he or she had run into a low clothesline.

   The referee called a personal foul, when he clotheslined the running back.

   • 2014, Jonathan Wood, No Hero, Titan Books, →ISBN:

     One beast jams out its arm, as if to clothesline me, jagged claws poised to take my head off at the neck. I let my feet fall from under me, throwing my legs forward, praying for some momentum, ducking and sliding, a mad limbo to freedom.

   • 2014 February 21, “Ear-bite actor Clive Mantle was like 'big monster', court told”, in BBC News‎:

     "I turned around and the next thing I was taken out by this big guy. I'm not sure if he punched me or clothes-lined me," he said.

• “clothesline”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.