servant

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

One who serves another

Nouns

1. servant, servitor, domestic, menial, help; retainer, follower, henchman, subject, liegeman; retinue, suite, cortege, staff, entourage, court; majordomo, chamberlain. See auxiliary, accompaniment.

2. employee, staff, personnel, manpower, workforce, human resources; secretary; clerk; subsidiary; agent.

3. (male servant) attendant, servitor, squire, usher, page; waiter, waitron, garçon, waitperson, butler, household administrator, steward; livery servant, lackey, footman, flunky, factotum, bellboy, valet, valet de chambre; man; equerry, groom; jockey, hostler; orderly, batman, messenger; [hired] hand. Informal, droid. Slang, jack, slavey, record changer, bedbug, fart-catcher.

4. (female servant) maid[servant], handmaid[en]; lady's maid, nurse, bonne, ayah, wet nurse, nursemaid, housemaid, parlor maid, waiting maid, chambermaid, kitchen maid, scullery maid; femme or fille de chambre, abigail, girl; chef de cuisine, cook, scullion; maid of all work, hired hand, laundress, charwoman; [baby-]sitter; bar girl, barmaid, waitress, waitperson. Slang, fancy girl, B-girl.

5. (lowly servant) serf, vassal, slave, minion, bondsman or - woman; bondslave; villein; pensioner, dependent; hanger-on, satellite; parasite (see servility); protégé[e], ward; hireling, underling, mercenary, puppet, creature, henchman, cat's-paw, myrmidon, errand or office boy or girl; batman, dog robber. Slang, shit-kicker.

Verbs — serve, work for, tend, minister to; wait at or on table, wait on, attend (upon), squire (see obedience).

Adjectives — serving, ministering, tending; in the train of, in one's pay or employ, on the payroll; at one's call (see obedience); in bondage; unliberated.

Quotations — Modern science was largely conceived of as an answer to the servant problem (Fran Lebowitz), The one point on which all women are in furious secret rebellion against the existing law is the saddling of the right to a child with the obligation to become the servant of a man (G. B. Shaw), Living? The servants will do that for us (Philippe-Auguste Villiers de L'Isle-Adam), When domestic servants are treated as human beings it is not worth while to keep them (G. B. Shaw).

Antonyms, see authority, director.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

Syn. servitor, attendant, retainer, helper, hireling, lackey, Dependent, menial, domestic, drudge, slave, slavey*; see also assistant .

Servants include: butler, chamberlain, housekeeper, chef, cook, second maid, scullery maid, kitchenmaid, maid of all work, 'tween maid, general maid, laundress, chambermaid, parlormaid, lady's maid, seamstress, nursemaid, nurse, valet, gentleman's gentleman, doorman, footman, lackey, wine steward, major-domo, squire, driver, coachman, chauffeur, groom, stableboy, stableman, equerry, gardener, yardman, kennelman, handyman.

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) n.

domestic, butler, maid, housekeeper, cook, help, valet, chauffeur, attendant, menial, slave, *guy/gal Friday.