Definitions

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

  • adjective Of or relating to work or a job regarded as servile.
  • adjective Of, relating to, or appropriate for a servant.
  • noun A servant, especially a domestic servant.
  • noun A person who has a servile or low nature.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Belonging to a retinue or train of servants; serving.
  • Pertaining to servants or domestic service; servile.
  • noun A domestic servant; one of a body of household servants: now used chiefly as a term of disparagement.

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

  • noun A domestic servant or retainer, esp. one of humble rank; one employed in low or servile offices.
  • noun A person of a servile character or disposition.
  • adjective Belonging to a retinue or train of servants; performing servile office; serving.
  • adjective Pertaining to servants, esp. domestic servants; servile; low; mean.

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

  • adjective Of or relating to work normally performed by a servant.
  • adjective Of or relating to unskilled work.
  • noun A servant, especially a domestic servant.
  • noun A person who has a subservient nature.

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

  • adjective used of unskilled work (especially domestic work)
  • noun a domestic servant

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English meinial, belonging to a household, from Anglo-Norman meignial, from meignee, household, from Vulgar Latin *mānsiōnāta, from Latin mānsiō, mānsiōn-, house; see mansion.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English meinial, from Anglo-Norman meignial, from meignee ("household"), from Vulgar Latin mansionata, from Latin mānsiō, mānsiōn ("house").

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Examples

Comments

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  • My opponent got 74 points for playing this word at scrabble. Definately not a menial word in this case.

    November 21, 2007