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I am bilingual and, from time to time, I realize certain words are missing in English. I just wanted to check whether there was a word for "doing the dishes."

(If anyone is curious, the word in Korean is [sur-guh-jee] which means to do the dishes, and nothing else)

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2 Answers 2

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How about dishwashing?

From Dictionary.com:

dishwashing: the act of washing dishes.

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    In Britain it is "washing up", unless you use a dishwasher, which some elderly people call "washing-up machines".
    – WS2
    Commented Oct 2, 2016 at 6:32
  • @WS2 Good to know. In the U.S., we often say "cleaning up" or "cleaning up the dishes". A key question is, "Who's going to clean up after dinner?" or "Who's going to do the dishes?" We call our "washing-up machines" dishwashers.
    – Richard Kayser
    Commented Oct 2, 2016 at 6:45
  • @WS2 I'm not sure that it's only old people who call them 'washing-up machine'
    – BladorthinTheGrey
    Commented Oct 2, 2016 at 12:22
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The word scullery refers to a room where certain kitchen-related tasks (including cleaning and dishwashing, but not the actual cooking) is carried out. You might find this a useful alternative but you'll need to adapt your usage to make it fit.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scullery

noun scul·lery \ˈskə-lə-rē, ˈskəl-rē\

Popularity: Bottom 40% of words

Simple Definition of scullery

a room that is near the kitchen in a large and usually old house and that is used for washing dishes, doing messy kitchen tasks, etc.

I've not seen "scullery" used as a noun indicating an action. Note that "sculling" means something quite different (related to sailing).

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    It's hard to see how scullery can work given that it refers to a room, not an action, as you yourself have noted.
    – Richard Kayser
    Commented Oct 2, 2016 at 6:50
  • @RichardKayser It depends on how the original poster wishes to work it into context if he/she likes the word (I've edited to make this clear). I thought it's a nice word with a closely related meaning which the asker may want to learn of, perhaps shelving it away for future use.
    – Deepak
    Commented Oct 2, 2016 at 6:53
  • Got it. It's a good word. I just thought it was off-point. Thanks.
    – Richard Kayser
    Commented Oct 2, 2016 at 6:56
  • OP's 'I just wanted to check whether there was a word for "doing the dishes." ' makes this not suitable for an answer. It would make a comment, perhaps.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Oct 2, 2016 at 15:03

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