Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A woman hired to do cleaning or similar work, usually in a large building.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A woman hired to do chares or odd work, or to work by the day.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A woman hired for odd work or for single days.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun chiefly UK A woman employed to do housework.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a human female employed to do housework

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

char + woman.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word charwoman.

Examples

  • WILLIS: A charwoman is a person who cleans a building, so she is responsible for cleaning up the building.

    CNN Transcript Jan 29, 2009 2009

  • Normally, the chef would call a charwoman to clean up that sort of mess.

    The Book of Unholy Mischief Elle Newmark 2008

  • Normally, the chef would call a charwoman to clean up that sort of mess.

    The Chef’s Apprentice Elle Newmark 2008

  • Normally, the chef would call a charwoman to clean up that sort of mess.

    The Book of Unholy Mischief Elle Newmark 2008

  • Normally, the chef would call a charwoman to clean up that sort of mess.

    The Chef’s Apprentice Elle Newmark 2008

  • Normally, the chef would call a charwoman to clean up that sort of mess.

    The Book of Unholy Mischief Elle Newmark 2008

  • They had been lifted from a garbage can used by bureaucrats in some Soviet Russian Consulate, pilfered by what old British spy novelists used to call a "charwoman", in Yankee parlance, a janitor.

    Richard H. Smith: Could a California Budget Fix Threaten National Security? Richard H. Smith 2010

  • (I say charwoman, meaning a woman who is paid to do work that other servants are hired to do, but will not.) [Illustration]

    The Pirate's Pocket Book Dion Clayton Calthrop 1907

  • She usually dressed rather in the style of a superior kind of charwoman, and it was not so very surprising that she should have imagined that she was one; and still less that people should accept her statement and help her to get work.

    The Toys of Peace, and other papers 1870-1916 Saki 1893

  • They had been lifted from a garbage can used by bureaucrats in some Soviet Russian Consulate, pilfered by what old British spy novelists used to call a "charwoman", in Yankee parlance, a janitor.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Richard H. Smith 2010

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • She darted about the room like a charwoman in torment, now straightening a cushion, now folding a Special Racing Edition, now hustling a shameful pile of lingerie behind a modest curtain. -- ''Yashima, or, The Gorgeous West'' by R T Sherwood, 1931.

    December 24, 2008

  • See also char.

    December 24, 2008

  • Whoops, I appear to have listed both this and charlady!

    December 24, 2008

  • That's okay, sarra, they're both words, right?

    December 24, 2008