bellhop
Americannoun
verb (used without object)
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of bellhop
Explanation
A bellhop is a person whose job involves carrying people's luggage in a hotel. When you check into a fancy inn, the bellhop will take your suitcase up to your room for you. You can also call a bellhop a bellboy, unless she's a woman, in which case bellhop makes more sense. The main job of a bellhop is to help hotel customers transport their luggage to their rooms, or to their cars when they're checking out. The word comes from the old fashioned hotel practice of the desk clerk ringing a bell to summon the bellhop — who would presumably "hop" to work, hurrying to help with the patron's bags.
Vocabulary lists containing bellhop
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator
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Me Talk Pretty One Day
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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.
See Examples For:
As any good bellhop knows, it’s important not to overstay your welcome.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 28, 2022
I was always the bellhop, the busboy, the window washer,” Jordan said in 1994.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 2022
Irure, who started working at age 13 as a hotel bellhop, was working as a professional cleaner when the pandemic hit Spain last year and dried up his sources of income.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 23, 2021
A hotel bellhop pushing a tall luggage cart was stymied by a concrete barrier, his guests lugging suitcases waiting just on the other side.
From New York Times ● Jan. 18, 2021
I had the bellhop put the bags and the tape-recorder into a waiting taxi, paid my hotel bill, and walked out the revolving door with the object of the search nestling in my jacket pocket.
From "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes
And by Valentine’s Day 1974, more than 3,000 Californians, from gas station attendants to hotel bellhops, were out of work.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 18, 2026
The strike encompassed housekeepers, dishwashers, cooks, waiters, bellhops and front-desk agents,
From Reuters ● Jul. 5, 2023
The strike by bellhops, front desk agents, room attendants, cooks, servers and dishwashers began early Sunday in Los Angeles and Orange counties just as summer tourism ramps up.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 3, 2023
Though tipped employees can include hotel housekeepers, bellhops, car washers and airport wheelchair escorts, most are in food and beverage service jobs.
From New York Times ● Oct. 13, 2022
If the doorman and bellhops found my means of traveling unusual, they gave no sign.
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
