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
Over nearly three hours, stories spill out, with Safi, played warmly by superb Ammar Haj Ahmad, acting as a self-appointed major-domo.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 28, 2023
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
So a man called Bellamy — or is it his doppelgänger, Bollany? — accompanies Swan on the piano and serves as his awkward, temporizing major-domo.
From New York Times ● May 2, 2019
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
You know that the major-domos of the other diplomatists have become my irreconcilable enemies through envy; they cannot forgive me for having more inventive faculties and better taste than any of them!
From The Daughter of an Empress by Nathaniel Greene
He had no office hours and never interposed secretaries or major-domos between himself and the people.
From Christ, Christianity and the Bible by Isaac Massey Haldeman
Then entered dwarf-stewards, and major-domos; aloft bearing twisted antlers; all hollowed out in goblets, grouped; announcing dinner.
From Mardi: and A Voyage Thither, Vol. II by Herman Melville
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.
