ironing

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The task of pressing clothes smooth with a heated iron, such as a steam iron.

   After folding the laundry, she settled down to the ironing.

   He left a week's worth of ironing for the weekend.

   Similarpressing

   Note

   One word covers the job from start to finish: the chore itself, the pile still waiting, and the pile already pressed. Context does the sorting. Make a start on the ironing points to clothes not yet pressed, and put the ironing away points to finished ones. Without an article, as in I hate ironing, it names the task in general.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of iron.

   He was ironing his uniform when the phone rang.

   They spent the evening ironing piles of bedsheets.

   Note

   The -ing form does double duty. After be it builds the progressive (she was ironing), and on its own it works as a gerund that names the activity (ironing takes an hour). It covers every sense of the verb, so it can take an object or stand alone. In older usage it could even mean putting someone in irons. The noun for the chore shares its spelling.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   Washed laundry that is clean and ready to be pressed with an iron.

   Every Monday a fresh load of ironing waits to be pressed.

   She carried the damp ironing through to the back room.

   Similarlaundry, washing

4. 4
   noununcountable

   Laundry that has recently been pressed smooth and is fresh from the iron.

   He stacked the newly pressed ironing on the shelf while it was still warm.

   A neat pile of finished ironing waited to be put away.

   Similarlaundry

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