servant

[sur-vuh nt] /ˈsɜr vənt/

noun

a person employed by another, especially to perform domestic duties.

a person in the service of another.

a person employed by the government:

a public servant.

Origin

1175-1225; Middle English < Old French, noun use of present participle of servir to serve; see -ant

Related forms

servantless, adjective

servantlike, adjective

Examples from the web for servant

It has nothing to do with being a servant or being elite.
The second servant said that he had received two talents, and he had made two talents more.
Permission was granted for our temporary shelter, and a servant led us to the nobleman's house.
Naturally they paid to doctors, they are really paid servant of drug companies.
Certainly, a headless, handless body wouldn't make for a good servant.
Put differently, a public servant has no right to a private life.
To no avail: the top civil servant in the defence ministry scornfully dismissed the court's ruling.
Not the unpaid servant kind, but the flash-triggering kind.
They are meant to distract us from what a public servant is hired to do.
If they wish, they can rent a suite of rooms, including one for a live-in servant.

British Dictionary definitions for servant

servant

/ˈsɜːvənt/

noun

a person employed to work for another, esp one who performs household duties

See public servant

Derived Forms

servant-like, adjective

Word Origin

C13: via Old French, from servant serving, from servir to serve

Word Origin and History for servant

c.1200, "personal or domestic attendant," from Old French servant "servant; foot-soldier," noun use of servant "serving, waiting," present participle of servir "to attend, wait upon" (see serve (v.)).

Meaning "professed lover, one devoted to the service of a lady" is from mid-14c. In North American colonies and U.S., the usual designation for "slave" 17c.-18c. (in 14c.-15c. and later in Biblical translations the word often was used to render Latin servus, Greek doulos "slave"). Public servant is attested from 1670s.