bellhop
Americannoun
verb (used without object)
noun
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.
He was, for a day, a short-order cook, a bellhop, a social work aide, a plumber.
From New York Times • Apr. 16, 2024
Their board is their bellhop, whisking away their emotional baggage, if only for the duration of each swell.
From Washington Post • May 27, 2021
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
He took jobs as a bellhop and laid track for the Pennsylvania Railroad.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 8, 2021
Barry had a friend who worked as a bellhop at a hotel in the financial district.
From "Book Scavenger" by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman
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.
