phrases, sayings, idioms and expressions at

Bath cloths

Posted by R. Berg on September 15, 2004

In Reply to: Stolen from the Sunset Motel posted by David FG on September 15, 2004

: : : : : : : : : : : Hello
: : : : : : : : : : : Is it a "washcloth" a kind of towel but smaller in size?

: : : : : : : : : : : thanks a million

: : : : : : : : : : I thought it was a flannel.

: : : : : : : : : : DFG

: : : : : : : : : It's "washcloth" in the U.S.

: : : : : : : : Both are made with the same material as towels, so yes, a wash cloth is a small towel. I have yet to see a flannel made of flannel fabric however. Does anyone know if they ever were? It sounds like it would have been rather nice in that fabric.

: : : : : : : A washcloth is made of terrycloth, like most towels. (There are also fancy guest towels made of other fabrics, such as linen, and not very useful. Then there are dishtowels.) But that doesn't make a washcloth a towel. A washcloth is used for washing, a towel for drying.

: : : : : : Every towel is a potential washcloth in my book; just add soap and water. For example, if I took two big towels to wash my car, the one that got wet and soapy would become the washcloth and the other, used for drying, would remain a towel. Conversely, those little towels, often called washcloths, that hang over the big towels on a "towel" rack are "towels" when used for drying one's hands.

: : : : : Seems to me that the washcloth was largely a US thing. I can recall travel worldwide in the early 70s, and even in the best European, South American, and Asian hotels, you would not find a washcloth. Some of my traveling buddies started cutting the towels into smaller pieces, and leaving the smaller ones behind to give the message to the hotels --(this may have contributed to the Ugly American theory).
: : : : : It seems that in the 80s, there were washcloths in most of the better hotels all around the world.

: : : : I stayed in a cheap hotel in New York that didn't provide washcloths. When I told the desk clerk of this omission, she said people steal them. If I recall correctly, you could get a washcloth on request.

: : : I've stayed at places where this was woven into the texture of the towel. :)

: : Also called a washrag (pronounced worsh-rag).

:
: This does seem to be a geographic thing. It is my impression that in the UK a small cloth used to apply soap to the body is called a 'flannel'. A (usually) larger cloth used to dry the body thereafter, is a 'towel'.

: The use of the flannel is, I think, dying out with the growth in the popularity of the sponge and/or the loofah.

: DFG

The pronunciation "worshrag" (I would have spelled it "warshrag") is regional. In my part of the U.S., inserting an R sound early in the word would mark one as a hick.

© 1997 – 2024 Phrases.org.uk. All rights reserved.