Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun One who is privately employed to perform domestic services.
- noun One who is publicly employed to perform services, as for a government.
- noun One who expresses submission, recognizance, or debt to another.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To subject; subordinate.
- To furnish with one or more servants.
- noun One who serves or attends, whether voluntarily or involuntarily; a person employed by another, and subject to his orders; one who exerts himself or herself, or labors, for the benefit of a master or an employer; an attendant; a subordinate assistant; an agent.
- noun Specifically
- noun A bondman or bondwoman; a slave.
- noun (b A person hired for a specified time to do manual or field labor; a laborer.
- noun A person in domestic service; a household or personal attendant; a domestic; a menial. An upper servant is one who has assistants under him or her, as a butler, a head cook, or a head coachman; an under servant is one who takes orders from an upper one, as an under-nurse, a scullery-maid, or a groom.
- noun One in a state of subjection.
- noun One who dedicates himself to the service of another; one who professes himself ready to do the will of another. See phrases below.
- noun A professed lover. The correlative term mistress is still in use.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun One who serves, or does services, voluntarily or on compulsion; a person who is employed by another for menial offices, or for other labor, and is subject to his command; a person who labors or exerts himself for the benefit of another, his master or employer; a subordinate helper.
- noun One in a state of subjection or bondage.
- noun obsolete A professed lover or suitor; a gallant.
- noun one debased to the lowest condition of servitude.
- noun phrases of civility formerly often used in closing a letter, now archaic; -- at one time such phrases were exaggerated to include
Your most humble, most obedient servant . - transitive verb obsolete To subject.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun One who
serves another, providinghelp in some manner. - noun One who is
hired to perform regularhousehold or other duties, and receivescompensation . As opposed to aslave . - verb obsolete To
subject .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun in a subordinate position
- noun a person working in the service of another (especially in the household)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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According to Paul, Philemon was to receive Onesimus "_not_ as a servant;" -- according to Stuart, he was to receive him "_as a servant_!"
The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus American Anti-Slavery Society
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"NOT _now as a servant, but above a servant_, a brother beloved, especially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord."
The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus American Anti-Slavery Society
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"Thou shalt not deliver unto his master," &c., sets the servant free from his _authority_ and of course, from all those liabilities of injury, to which _as his servant_, he was subjected, but not from the obligation of legal contracts.
The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 1 of 4 American Anti-Slavery Society
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"NOT _now as a servant, but above a servant_, a brother beloved, especially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord."
The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus American Anti-Slavery Society
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"NOT _now as a servant, but above a servant_, a brother beloved, especially to me, but how much more unto thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord."
The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 4 of 4 American Anti-Slavery Society
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Not a single instance is recorded, of a servant being sold by any one but himself; not a case, either under the patriarchal, or the Mosaic systems, in which a _master sold his servant_.
The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 1 of 4 American Anti-Slavery Society
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Use, _I have the honor to be, Sir, your obedient servant; Very respectfully, your most obedient servant_; etc., etc.
Higher Lessons in English A work on english grammar and composition Brainerd Kellogg
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Yours truly; Truly yours; Yours respectfully; Very respectfully yours_, etc. In official letters use _I have the honor to be, Sir, your obedient servant; Very respectfully, your most obedient servant_.
Graded Lessons in English an Elementary English Grammar Consisting of One Hundred Practical Lessons, Carefully Graded and Adapted to the Class-Room Brainerd Kellogg
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Yours truly; Truly yours; Yours respectfully; Very respectfully yours_, etc. In official letters use _I have the honor to be, Sir, your obedient servant; Very respectfully, your most obedient servant_.
Graded Lessons in English an Elementary English Grammar Consisting of One Hundred Practical Lessons, Carefully Graded and Adapted to the Class-Room Brainerd Kellogg
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According to Paul, Philemon was to receive Onesimus "_not_ as a servant;" -- according to Stuart, he was to receive him "_as a servant_!"
The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Part 4 of 4 American Anti-Slavery Society
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