/wȯ-shiŋ mə-shēn/
n. Old-style 14-inch hard disks in floor-standing cabinets. So called because of the size of the cabinet and the top-loading access to the media packs -- and, of course, they were always set on spin cycle. The washing-machine idiom transcends language barriers; it is even used in Russian hacker jargon.
See also walking drives.
The thick channel cables connecting these were called bit hoses (see hose).