major-domo
Americannoun
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major-domos
plural
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a man in charge of a great household, as that of a sovereign; a chief steward.
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a steward or butler.
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a person who makes arrangements for another.
noun
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the chief steward or butler of a great household
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facetious a steward or butler
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of major-domo
1580–90; < Spanish mayordomo < Medieval Latin majordomūs head of the house, equivalent to major major + domūs, genitive of domus house; see dome
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:
Proteins, of course; RNA acts as the major-domo, a bridge between the castes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 13, 2025
Chad Kelderman is deliciously ridiculous as Olivia’s pompous major-domo Malvolio, and Eric Ray Anderson gleefully cavorts as the sly party dog Sir Toby Belch.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 17, 2019
Mugleston, who plays Mrs. Pearce, the Higgins household major-domo, with a Scottish accent, waits with her at one interlude in Act 2.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 8, 2019
The character of Masters’s major-domo, Higgins — a showcase for John Hillerman’s comic indignation in the original — has been gender switched and is now played by an actual Briton, Perdita Weeks.
From New York Times ● Sep. 23, 2018
Donovan marveled, “What are they doing? That’s what I want to know. It looks like the Virginia reel—and Dave’s a major-domo, or I never saw one.”
From "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov
Both ceremonies were slick enough, and McDonald and Odom proved to be charming major-domos.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 27, 2021
Little Fortune was interned at war's beginning, but he was not shipped to Canada on the ill-fated Arandora Star along with most of London's Italian major-domos.
From Time Magazine Archive
Then come the stout major-domos, the pages, the horsemen, the stewards, Dame Barbara, with all her keys hanging at her side on a real silver ring.
From Devil Stories An Anthology by Various
Let their passion rage steadily against the existing major-domos to this effect, "Find us men skilled in house-building, acquainted with the laws of atmospheric suction, and capable to cure smoke;" something might come of it!
From Latter-Day Pamphlets by Thomas Carlyle
Then the well-fed major-domos, the pages, the stablemen, the stewards, and Lady Barbe, with all her keys hanging by her side on a fine silver key-ring.
From Letters from my Windmill by Alphonse Daudet
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
