the.com/ironing board
a flat altar where wrinkles go to die and good intentions pile up unused.
means A long, narrow, padded surface on collapsible legs, designed to hold clothing flat while you press out wrinkles with a hot iron.
from A plain compound of "iron" and "board." "Iron" comes from Old English "īren/īsern," a Germanic word for the metal, the same root that named the heavy heated tool you push across fabric. "Board" is Old English "bord," meaning a plank or flat surface — the same word that gives us cutting board and surfboard. So the name is literally "the board you iron on," a workmanlike pairing that arrived once flat irons were common household tools and someone tired of pressing shirts across a cloth-draped table.
- patent year
- first US patent granted in 1858 to Sarah Boone
- second job
- doubles as a desk, shelf, or laundry dumping ground
- design hack
- narrow nose end exists to slip inside shirt sleeves
- folding trick
- adjustable legs let it stand or wall-mount flat
ironing board patent — sarah boone patented the first curved ironing board in 1892, improving on earlier designs
sleeve ironing board — a specialized narrow board designed specifically for pressing shirt sleeves and trouser legs