below stairs

American  

noun

(usually used with a singular verb)

1. (formerly) the basement rooms usually used by servants, as servants' quarters, kitchen, and laundry room.

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below stairs British  

adverb

1. (formerly) at or in the basement of a large house, considered as the place where the servants live and work

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Example Sentences

Even when she was cast in “Gosford Park,” she was disappointed to learn she would be playing Lady Sylvia McCordle; she would have preferred being below stairs.

From Los Angeles Times

My husband was Hudson the butler - "him below stairs".

From BBC

Papers held by the family of Robert Egerton, a pioneering solicitor involved in the celebrated 1936 case, provide an extraordinary “below stairs” account of what he described as a “judicial farce” during the abdication crisis.

From The Guardian

Below stairs, the Royals’ stuck-up retinue is attempting to supplant the Downton domestics.

From New York Times

Below stairs, Joanne Froggatt remains Anna May Bates, lady’s maid to Mary, and Brendan Coyle returns as her selfless hubby, John Bates.

From Washington Times