valet
/ˈvæleɪ/ noun, verb
Forms valets valeting valeted
- noun A man's personal male attendant, responsible for his clothes and appearance.
- noun A hotel employee performing such duties for guests.
- noun (professional wrestling) A female performer in professional wrestling, acting as either a manager or personal chaperone; often used to attract and titillate male members of the audience.
- noun A female chaperone who accompanies a man, and is usually not married to him.
- noun (US) A person employed to clean or park cars.
- noun A person employed to assist the jockey and trainer at a racecourse.
- noun A wooden stand on which to hold clothes and accessories in preparation for dressing.
- noun A kind of goad or stick with an iron point.
- verb (transitive) To serve (someone) as a valet.
- verb (transitive, chiefly UK, Ireland) To clean and service (a car), as a valet does.
- verb (transitive, US) To leave (a car) with a valet to park it.
Synonyms
butler gentleman's gentleman parking attendant valet de chambre gentleman man
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French valet, from Old French vaslet, from Medieval Latin *vassellittus, diminutive of Late Latin vassallus (“manservant, domestic, retainer”), from vassus (“servant”), from Gaulish *wassos (“young man, squire”), from Proto-Celtic *wastos (“servant”) (compare Old Irish foss and Welsh gwas). Doublet of varlet.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A male waiting servant; a servant who attends on gentleman's person; a body servant.
- noun A kind of goad or stick with a point of iron. Valet de chambre ( Etym: [F.], a body servant, or personal attendant.
Etymology [F. valet, OF. vallet, varlet, vaslet. See Varlet, and Vassal.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “valet”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details