Definition of "washboard"

washboard

noun
plural washboards
1. A board with a corrugated surface against which laundry may be rubbed.
2. (music) Such a board used as a simple percussion instrument.
3. (nautical) A board fastened along a ship's gunwale to prevent splashing; a splashboard.
4. A stretch of ripples or bumps on a dirt or gravel road caused by interaction between traffic and road surface.
  Quotations
  Franklin is beside himself, revving up the engine in the pickup. As I jump in, he spins out and takes off up the road in the direction the plane came from, bouncing dangerously over washboards and ruts.
  2009, Chinle Miller, Desert Rats: Adventures in the American Outback, page 35
5. (dated) baseboard; skirting board
verb
third-person singular simple present washboards, present participle washboarding, simple past and past participle washboarded
1. To produce a rippled texture on a surface.
  Quotations
  Doug came up with a half-guilty smile and washboarded his forehead at her.
  1967, James Jones, Go to the Widow-Maker, page 515
  The rip that was generated by each change of tide had scoured the bottom white and washboarded the sand where it was still layered over the hardpan coral floor.
  1992, Ocean Realm, page 17
  The low bass brruummmp of 20-mm slugs going out washboarded the bulkheads.
  1997, David Poyer, The Passage: A Thriller
  She drove as fast as she dared, braking for the frost heaves that washboarded the blacktop and on her dirt road, bouncing in and out of the clay ruts cut by the flow of runoff.
  2001, Phoebe
2. To play a washboard.
  Quotations
  It's almost as if the urge to washboard is intrinsically human.
  2008, The New Yorker, page 28
3. (bees) To move up and down or back and forth across the surface of a hive, possibly to lay down a layer of propolis and wax.
  Quotations
  Individual bees have been observed washboarding on the inside glass of an observation hive.
  2015, James E. Tew, The Beekeeper's Problem Solver, page 73
  This behaviour is believed to be associated with general cleaning activities but under what circumstances workers washboard is not known.
  2015, Robert Owen, The Australian Beekeeping Manual, page 19-51