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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  

[sley-vee] / ˈsleɪ vi /

noun

British Informal: Older Use.

plural

slaveys

1. a female servant, especially a maid of all work in a boardinghouse.

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Slavey ² American  

[sley-vee] / ˈsleɪ vi /

noun

plural

Slaveys,

plural

Slavey

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.

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Slavey ¹ British  

/ ˈsleɪvɪ /

noun

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

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slavey ² British  

/ ˈsleɪvɪ /

noun

1. informal a female general servant

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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

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

From Time Magazine Archive

She journeyed from England to play Clickett Micawber's slavey in David Copperfield, a portrait mostly left on the cutting-room floor; appeared briefly in Naughty Marietta.

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

The role best calculated to squeeze the sobs is that of the slavey; and talented Dorothy McGuire runs the whole gamut.

From Time Magazine Archive

Lizzie asked with the freedom of the lodging-house slavey, but the question was spoken in sympathy rather than anger.

From The Independence of Claire by Vaizey, George de Horne, Mrs.