Library / English Dictionary

VALET

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A manservant who acts as a personal attendant to his employer

Example:

Jeeves was Bertie Wooster's man

Synonyms:

gentleman; gentleman's gentleman; man; valet; valet de chambre

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("valet" is a kind of...):

body servant (a valet or personal maid)

manservant (a man servant)

Derivation:

valet (serve as a personal attendant to)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Serve as a personal attendant to

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "valet" is one way to...):

assist; attend; attend to; serve; wait on (work for or be a servant to)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

valet (a manservant who acts as a personal attendant to his employer)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Neither could I wonder at all this, when I saw such an interruption of lineages, by pages, lackeys, valets, coachmen, gamesters, fiddlers, players, captains, and pickpockets.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I don't know how many of the fine people at the Leas are coming with him: he sends directions for all the best bedrooms to be prepared; and the library and drawing-rooms are to be cleaned out; I am to get more kitchen hands from the George Inn, at Millcote, and from wherever else I can; and the ladies will bring their maids and the gentlemen their valets: so we shall have a full house of it.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I was a valet at the time, but I was not yet in the service of Lord Avon.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Our readers will remember that the deceased gentleman was found stabbed in his room, and that some suspicion attached to his valet, but that the case broke down on an alibi.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I requested likewise, that the secret of my having a false covering to my body, might be known to none but himself, at least as long as my present clothing should last; for as to what the sorrel nag, his valet, had observed, his honour might command him to conceal it.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

My name is Ambrose, and I have the honour to be the valet of Sir Charles Tregellis.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

No one is ever permitted to enter that room save the house-maid in the morning, and my valet, or my wife’s maid, during the rest of the day.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was only by the aid of a man whom the landlord procured, and of Fox’s valet, who had been sent expressly across, that his toilet was at last performed.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

As to the arrest of John Mitton, the valet, it was a council of despair as an alternative to absolute inaction.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

For answer the huge prizefighter looked meaningly at the valet.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)