SERVANT

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person working in the service of another (especially in the household)

Synonyms:

retainer; servant

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("servant" is a kind of...):

worker (a person who works at a specific occupation)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "servant"):

body servant (a valet or personal maid)

cabin boy (a young man acting as a servant on a ship)

domestic; domestic help; house servant (a servant who is paid to perform menial tasks around the household)

factotum (a servant employed to do a variety of jobs)

familiar (a person attached to the household of a high official (as a pope or bishop) who renders service in return for support)

flunkey; flunky; lackey (a male servant (especially a footman))

major-domo; seneschal (the chief steward or butler of a great household)

manservant (a man servant)

menial (a domestic servant)

scullion (a kitchen servant employed to do menial tasks (especially washing))

servant girl; serving girl (a girl who is a servant)

Derivation:

serve (work for or be a servant to)

Sense 2

Meaning:

In a subordinate position

Example:

the state cannot be a servant of the church

Synonyms:

handmaid; handmaiden; servant

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("servant" is a kind of...):

subordinateness; subsidiarity (secondary importance)

Derivation:

serve (promote, benefit, or be useful or beneficial to)

Credits

Context examples:

Master! How is he my master? Am I a servant?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Thereupon the servant knocked in a very guarded manner; the door was opened on the chain; and a voice asked from within, “Is that you, Poole?”

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

I sprang up and rang for the servant.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The servants were gone to a neighbouring fair.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

We can count, I take it, on your own home servants, Mr. Trelawney?

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

At the door was standing the dark-faced servant.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“I pray you, my dear lord, that you will give my humble service to the Lady Maude, and say to her that I was ever her true servant and most unworthy cavalier.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The features are given to man as the means by which he shall express his emotions, and yours are faithful servants.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

At last, as they drew near the end of their journey, this treacherous servant threatened to kill her mistress if she ever told anyone what had happened.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

And I still appeal to my servants round, whether they at any time saw a coach at my door, without knowing what persons were in it.