Daily AncestorIroner
An ironer pressed washed clothes and linens with heated irons, in a laundry or a private household.
Ironing uses a heated iron to take wrinkles out of cloth; cotton needs water added to set it smooth. It was traditionally women's work, part of laundry along with washing and drying, done both at home and in commercial laundries.
Washerwomen who took in other people's laundry often charged by the piece. An ironer did the pressing, while a laundress might do the whole job.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1870 to 1940 census
Mary Toole, 31, Ironer, Laundry
How to cite this page
Daily Ancestor. "Ironer." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/ironer. Last checked 2026-10-10.