Meaning & use
soiled linen
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Meaning
noununcountable
Cloth items such as sheets, towels, or clothes that are dirty and need to be washed.
Grammar: Uncountable: say 'some soiled linen' or 'a pile of soiled linen', not 'a soiled linen'.
Patterns
- soiled linen in a place
- a pile of soiled linen
- collect soiled linen
The hotel housekeeper gathered the soiled linen from each room.
Please put your soiled linen in the basket provided.
The hospital laundry service collects soiled linen every morning.
Common combinations
- soiled linen basket
- The soiled linen basket was full after the weekend guests left.
- soiled linen service
- The hotel uses an outside soiled linen service to save time.
- bag of soiled linen
- She carried a heavy bag of soiled linen down to the laundry room.
Synonyms and how they differ
- dirty laundry
- More informal and often used figuratively for private matters; 'soiled linen' is more neutral and literal.
- washing
- Refers to clothes and linen to be washed, but can also mean the act of washing; 'soiled linen' focuses on the items themselves.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: soiled linen or linen?
soiled linen vs linen
Linen is the material or the items; soiled linen is specifically linen that is dirty and needs washing.
Practice
The housekeeper put the ______ linen in the laundry basket.
Choose one answer.
The adjective 'soiled' describes the linen as dirty. 'Soiling' would be a verb form and does not fit before a noun here; 'soil' and 'soils' are verbs or nouns and cannot modify 'linen' in this way.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “soiled linen”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.