In Oliver Twist, what did Charles Dickens mean when he wrote the line, "we've just taken them out to wash?"

In the desperately poor and exceedingly peculiar world in which Charles Dickens' protagonist, Oliver Twist, finds himself, a pocket-handkerchief is considered an item of luxury, despite their obvious ubiquity. Early in Oliver Twist, the young orphan is sentenced to solitary confinement for the crime of asking for more food. Despondent, Oliver considers, consistent with the prediction of his jailer, "the gentleman in the white waistcoat," to kill himself. His only means of performing this act,...

In the desperately poor and exceedingly peculiar world in which Charles Dickens' protagonist, Oliver Twist, finds himself, a pocket-handkerchief is considered an item of luxury, despite their obvious ubiquity. Early in Oliver Twist, the young orphan is sentenced to solitary confinement for the crime of asking for more food. Despondent, Oliver considers, consistent with the prediction of his jailer, "the gentleman in the white waistcoat," to kill himself. His only means of performing this act, however, is his handkerchief, which he could fashion into a noose. Oliver hesitates in hanging himself in this manner, however, because, as the boy reconsiders his option, pocket-handkerchiefs are "articles of luxury" that "had been, for all future times and ages, removed from the noses of paupers . . ."

Handkerchiefs, in other words, are symbols of wealth and sophistication, and it is in this context that Fagin, the leader of the band of young pick-pockets into which Oliver is initiated, makes the comment referenced in the student's question. Encountering "the Jew" for the first time, Oliver is struck by this older man's manner, and by his pocket-handkerchiefs. Fagin's response is as follows:

‘We are very glad to see you, Oliver, very,’ said the Jew. . .Ah, you’re a-staring at the pocket-handkerchiefs! eh, my dear. There are a good many of ‘em, ain’t there? We’ve just looked ‘em out, ready for the wash; that’s all, Oliver; that’s all. Ha! ha! ha!’

Oliver is not yet wise to the situation in which he now finds himself, and believes initially that Fagin and his minions are the manufacturers of these handkerchiefs and other goods he finds this odd group hoarding. Fagin's demeanor is unfailingly, at least at first, polite, and the career criminal presents himself in the manner of a true gentleman, the handkerchiefs lending credence to his fiction. As Oliver does not yet know the true nature of his new friends and surroundings, he perceives the handkerchiefs in the mistaken light of an upper-class world to which he can only aspire. This is the meaning of the misquote provided in the student's question.