scullion
Americannoun
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a kitchen servant who does menial work.
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a low or contemptible person.
noun
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a mean or despicable person
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archaic a servant employed to do rough household work in a kitchen
Etymology
Origin of scullion
1475–85; perhaps < Middle French escouvillon dishcloth, equivalent to escouve broom (< Latin scōpa ) + -illon diminutive suffix
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.
Then he spent six weeks skulking around New York, searching for a ship that would hire him, finally finding work as a scullion on a small steamer headed across the Atlantic.
From The New Yorker • Nov. 18, 2019
Fortunately, he was discovered that first night by the cook, given food to eat and then put to work as the third cook or scullion at $8.00 a month.
From Forbes • Jul. 30, 2014
Dazzled, newsgatherers hailed Mrs. Rosa Lewis as the most exalted onetime scullion who ever lived, remembering that she and the late Edward VII were once close as two quails on a spit.
From Time Magazine Archive
“You challenge my skills, you scullion? You know nothing of being a Hunter!”
From "The Titan's Curse" by Rick Riordan
The neglect of the dishes, I discovered, was due to a curious impasse: Sally, the maid, now serving also as cook, refused to clean dishes, despising the lowly office of scullion.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
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.
