Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A crowd of attendants or menials.
- noun A disorderly crowd; a rabble.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The rabble; the crowd; the mob.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The rabble; the crowd; the mob.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun obsolete The
rabble ; thecrowd ; themob .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word varletry.
Examples
-
The modern magazine reader is a member of the new bourgeois varletry, the monied class that makes the old nouveau riche look like aristocracy.
Chance Abutmenting (a counter-critique of Peter Schjeldahl) 2008
-
She'll not be “chastised with the sober eye of dull Octavia,” nor shown “to the shouting varletry of censuring Rome.”
The Man Shakespeare Harris, Frank, 1855-1931 1909
-
Scarcely were we concealed than the varletry of Theophilus burst into our laura.
Gathering Clouds: A Tale of the Days of St. Chrysostom 1831-1903 1895
-
Shakespeare to glorify the name of Cranmer or to deify the names of the queen then dead and the king yet living, it is but natural that he should be induced by an unconscious bias or prepossession of the will to depreciate the worth of the verse sent on work fitter for ushers and embalmers and the general valetry or varletry of Church and State.
A Study of Shakespeare Algernon Charles Swinburne 1873
-
The excitement of the varletry in the square, they say, was fearful to hear.
Complete Project Gutenberg Works of George Meredith George Meredith 1868
-
The excitement of the varletry in the square, they say, was fearful to hear.
The Amazing Marriage — Complete George Meredith 1868
-
The excitement of the varletry in the square, they say, was fearful to hear.
The Amazing Marriage — Volume 1 George Meredith 1868
-
'I will go and fright the varletry with my presence, and secure, I trust, a horse for Your Majesty, and one for myself.'
The Princess and Curdie George MacDonald 1864
-
With friendly arm, they rais'd us: nathlefs fome Among our old and ftubborn fwains mifdeem'd,, nd envy'd, who enrich'd them; envy'd thofe, hofe virtues taught the varletry of towns To ufeful toil to turn the pilfering hand.
The works of the English poets; with prefaces, biographical and critical 1790
-
"chastised with the sober eye of dull Octavia," nor shown "to the shouting varletry of censuring Rome."
The Man Shakespeare Frank Harris 1893
rolig commented on the word varletry
I need to start using this word.
April 16, 2016