A clothesline is a rope or wire stretched between two points, used for hanging wet laundry outdoors to dry in the sun and wind. Before electric dryers became common in the 1960s, nearly every home had a clothesline in the backyard where people would pin wet shirts, sheets, and towels using wooden clothespins. The clothes would flutter in the breeze and come back inside smelling like fresh air.

Many people still use clotheslines today because they save electricity, and some think sun-dried clothes smell better than machine-dried ones. On a breezy summer day, a full clothesline looks almost like colorful flags waving in the wind.

In baseball, a clothesline also describes a hard-hit ball that flies straight and fast through the air at about chest height, like it's following an invisible line. When a batter hits a clothesline drive to the outfield, the ball barely rises or falls as it rockets past the infielders.