Hills Hoist

See also: Hills hoist

English

Alternative forms

Hills hoist

Etymology

From genitive of Hill (“a surname”) (with elided apostrophe) + hoist (“lift”); from the trade name of the product manufactured from 1945 by Lance Hill of Adelaide, South Australia.

Pronunciation

Audio (AU) (file)

Noun

Hills Hoist (plural Hills Hoists)

(Australia) A rotary clothes line with adjustable height by means of a rotating handle.
- 1989, Helen Townsend, Miranda′s Album‎, page 52:
  A Hills Hoist was set into the concrete. It was covered with a lush choko vine. Hazel always claimed the Hills Hoist was the perfect plant support. “If you want to do some pruning, you just wind it up and spin it round.”
- 1993, Tim Winton, Land's Edge‎, page 8:
  Like most Australians I have spent much of my life in the suburbs. I was raised in the Perth suburb of Karrinyup. A quarter acre, a terracotta roof, a facade knocked out by some bored government architect, a Hills Hoist in the back yard and picket fences between us and the neighbours.
- 2002, Meanjin, Volume 61, Melbourne University Press, page 165,
  I watched them glistening over the tiled rooftops and Hills hoists and waited, in awe, for the shadow to reach our Lower Templestowe back yard.
- 2010, Emma Hardman, Nine Parts Water‎, page 119:
  Even the sight of a Hills Hoist still gave her a Pavlovian response of calm and comfort. […] There were no Hills Hoists here in the caravan park, just bright cords pulled tight between caravans and trees, easily extended and retracted.

Usage notes

The Hills Hoist is regarded as symbolic of Australian suburbia.