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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

See Examples For:

slavey Slavey slaveys

She starts as a slavey, advances via an inheritance to the lordly Maxwell Towers, marries the glistening young Earl.

From Time Magazine Archive

She journeyed from England to play Clickett Micawber's slavey in David Copperfield, a portrait mostly left on the cutting-room floor; appeared briefly in Naughty Marietta.

From Time Magazine Archive

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

From Time Magazine Archive

He rides a thoroughbred mare while making his daughter a slavey; he sneers at the Yankees as vulgar traders while owing them money and enjoying none of their trade.

From Time Magazine Archive

"Please, sir, there's a lady here," said the little slavey.

From A Crooked Path A Novel by Mrs. Alexander

“It’s nice to come out here and do some good stuff, instead of staying at home watching sports,” said volunteer Robert Slavey.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 18, 2019

Heather Slavey squinted as she stared into the badlands.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 12, 2017

Slavey, who does marketing for a law firm, and her husband, Robert, left their home in San Diego early Saturday morning, and drove toward Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 12, 2017

In the field off Henderson Canyon Road that Slavey had explored with her husband, state park Ranger Steve Bier led a wildlife tour Saturday morning.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 12, 2017

I was going to tell you about our Slavey and the pretty pickle she got us into.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 99, October 4, 1890 by Various

The trades have been full of stories about wholesale firings; panicky studios have cut salaries of office slaveys and minor employees.

From Time Magazine Archive

Why those plainclothes men are always courting slaveys.

From Ulysses by James Joyce

Ve're chaffed and jeered by every cove, by slaveys on a bus; Our werry watermen are now our masters top of us.

From Punch - Volume 25 (Jul-Dec 1853) by Various

How I pity the long procession of "slaveys" who must have followed each other drearily in that lodging-house under the landlady's jurisdiction.

From The Motor Maid by C. N. (Charles Norris) Williamson