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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.

slaveys plural

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

Slaveys, plural Slavey plural

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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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• Slavey
  plural
• Slaveys
  plural
• slaveys
  plural

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

The role best calculated to squeeze the sobs is that of the slavey; and talented Dorothy McGuire runs the whole gamut.

From Time Magazine Archive

Wanda Hendrix stands out sharply as a downtrodden little London slavey.

From Time Magazine Archive

Sinatra, playing a character named Frank Sinatra, is simply a shy young fellow next door who has struck up a songful flirtation with the slavey.

From Time Magazine Archive

At 25, with an ailing husband to support, tiny Mrs. Gilmer was a women's-page slavey on the New Orleans Picayune, where she had started at $5 a week.

From Time Magazine Archive

"No fault o' 'is, then," said the slavey quickly, voicing her earnest partisanship without a moment's wait.

From The Old Flute-Player A Romance of To-day by Hare, J. Knowles