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printer's devil

American

noun

devil.

printer's devil British

noun

an apprentice or errand boy in a printing establishment

"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

Etymology

Origin of printer's devil

First recorded in 1755–65

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.

My newspaper career began at age 16 as a printer’s devil — cleaning presses, melting Linotype lead — for the weekly Ojai Valley News.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 15, 2024

Hubbs started as a printer’s devil with the Reeves County Record.

From Washington Times • Dec. 13, 2018

“Why, I’m going to have my uncle sent to the penitentiary, along with his publisher and his press agent and the whole crew, down to the merest printer’s devil who carried the blasted type.”

From The New Yorker • Mar. 13, 2017

A onetime printer's devil, he went to Buckingham Palace for his seals of office in a grey flannel suit, because "I hadn't the time to get myself up all posh."

From Time Magazine Archive

A few minutes later Benny and the printer's devil, his accomplice, came out of that same door.

From On Guard Mark Mallory's Celebration by Sinclair, Upton

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023