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  • slavey
    slavey
    noun
    a female servant, especially a maid of all work in a boardinghouse.
  • Slavey
    Slavey
    noun
    a member of a group of Athabascan-speaking First Nations living in the upper Mackenzie River valley region of the Northwest Territories and in parts of British Columbia, Alberta, and the Yukon Territory.

slavey

1 American  
[slay-vee] / ˈsleɪ vi /

noun

British Informal: Older Use.
  • slaveys
    plural
  1. a female servant, especially a maid of all work in a boardinghouse.


Slavey 2 American  
[slay-vee] / ˈsleɪ vi /

noun

  • Slaveys,
    plural
  • Slavey
    plural
  1. a member of a group of Athabascan-speaking First Nations living in the upper Mackenzie River valley region of the Northwest Territories and in parts of British Columbia, Alberta, and the Yukon Territory.


Slavey 1 British  
/ ˈsleɪvɪ /

noun

  1. a member of a Dene Native Canadian people of northern Canada

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

slavey 2 British  
/ ˈsleɪvɪ /

noun

  1. informal a female general servant

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms


Etymology

Origin of slavey1

First recorded in 1800–10; slave + -y 2

Origin of Slavey2

First recorded in 1785–80; from French esclave, literally, “slave,” a loan translation of Cree awahkān “captive, slave” (the Cree would make raids on and enslave this Athabascan people); the two-syllable pronunciation is a local variant derived from a spelling with the French suffix -ais


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:

Wanda Hendrix stands out sharply as a downtrodden little London slavey.

From Time Magazine Archive

When Falconer arrived in England Judy was whisked off to a farm in the country, where she was made the slavey of an ill-natured old nurse who treated her like a moral leper.

From Time Magazine Archive

To each other, the young man and the slavey become as beautiful as makeup artists can manage.

From Time Magazine Archive

He rides a thoroughbred mare while making his daughter a slavey; he sneers at the Yankees as vulgar traders while owing them money and enjoying none of their trade.

From Time Magazine Archive

There was a strangeness in the room, And Something white and wavy Was standing near me in the gloom— I took it for the carpet-broom Left by that careless slavey.

From Rhyme? And Reason? by Lewis Carroll

“It’s nice to come out here and do some good stuff, instead of staying at home watching sports,” said volunteer Robert Slavey.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 18, 2019

Slavey, who does marketing for a law firm, and her husband, Robert, left their home in San Diego early Saturday morning, and drove toward Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 12, 2017

Heather Slavey squinted as she stared into the badlands.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 12, 2017

In the field off Henderson Canyon Road that Slavey had explored with her husband, state park Ranger Steve Bier led a wildlife tour Saturday morning.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 12, 2017

Slavey, the, 361, and map, pp. 334-5 Slavo-Kelt, use of term, 512 Slavs, the, 318, 321, 327 sqq.,

From Man, Past and Present by Alfred Court Haddon

The trades have been full of stories about wholesale firings; panicky studios have cut salaries of office slaveys and minor employees.

From Time Magazine Archive

How I pity the long procession of "slaveys" who must have followed each other drearily in that lodging-house under the landlady's jurisdiction.

From The Motor Maid by C. N. (Charles Norris) Williamson

Why those plainclothes men are always courting slaveys.

From Ulysses by James Joyce

Ve're chaffed and jeered by every cove, by slaveys on a bus; Our werry watermen are now our masters top of us.

From Punch - Volume 25 (Jul-Dec 1853) by Various

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