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.

  • transitive verb obsolete To subject.
  • 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.

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

  • noun One who serves another, providing help in some manner.
  • noun One who is hired to perform regular household or other duties, and receives compensation. As opposed to a slave.
  • 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

[Middle English, from Old French, from present participle of servir, to serve; see serve.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French servant.

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