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chief cook and bottlewasher

Idioms

A person in charge of numerous duties, both vital and trivial, as in We have no secretaries or clerks; the department head is chief cook and bottlewasher and does it all. [Slang; c. 1840]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

We only keep one undersized girl," he explained more directly to Annie, "and Ellen has to be chief cook and bottlewasher herself.

From Annie Kilburn : a Novel by Howells, William Dean

In the box were "traps" innumerable in charge of Bert, who was "chief cook and bottlewasher."

From Short Stories of Various Types by Freck, Laura F.

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023