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• slavey
  slavey

  noun

  a female servant, especially a maid of all work in a boardinghouse.
• Slavey
  Slavey

  noun

  a member of a group of Athabascan-speaking First Nations living in the upper Mackenzie River valley region of the Northwest Territories and in parts of British Columbia, Alberta, and the Yukon Territory.

slavey

¹ American  

[sley-vee] / ˈsleɪ vi /

noun

British Informal: Older Use.

plural

slaveys

1. a female servant, especially a maid of all work in a boardinghouse.

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Slavey ² American  

[sley-vee] / ˈsleɪ vi /

noun

plural

Slaveys,

plural

Slavey

1. a member of a group of Athabascan-speaking First Nations living in the upper Mackenzie River valley region of the Northwest Territories and in parts of British Columbia, Alberta, and the Yukon Territory.

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Slavey ¹ British  

/ ˈsleɪvɪ /

noun

1. a member of a Dene Native Canadian people of northern Canada

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slavey ² British  

/ ˈsleɪvɪ /

noun

1. informal a female general servant

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Etymology

Origin of slavey¹

First recorded in 1800–10; slave + -y ²

Origin of Slavey²

First recorded in 1785–80; from French esclave, literally, “slave,” a loan translation of Cree awahkān “captive, slave” (the Cree would make raids on and enslave this Athabascan people); the two-syllable pronunciation is a local variant derived from a spelling with the French suffix -ais

Example Sentences

When Falconer arrived in England Judy was whisked off to a farm in the country, where she was made the slavey of an ill-natured old nurse who treated her like a moral leper.

From Time Magazine Archive

To each other, the young man and the slavey become as beautiful as makeup artists can manage.

From Time Magazine Archive

Kim pretends to be a cockney slavey only to get this beguiling if hokey mystery-comedy off to a start.

From Time Magazine Archive

Actress Julie Haydon plays radiantly as the simple-hearted slavey, makes the Canon's conversion entirely credible.

From Time Magazine Archive

The landlady and a slavey waited on table; the landlord could be seen loafing in the kitchen.

From Free Air by Lewis, Sinclair