waitress

[wey-tris]

noun

1. a woman who waits on tables, as in a restaurant.

verb (used without object)

1. to work or serve as a waitress.

   She waitressed in a restaurant to help pay her way through college.

waitress

/ ˈweɪtrɪs /

noun

1. a woman who serves at table, as in a restaurant

verb

1. (intr) to act as a waitress

Gender Note

See -ess, -person.

Word History and Origins

Origin of waitress¹

First recorded in 1580–90; wait(e)r + -ess

Example Sentences

When she finished in 2001, she knew she couldn’t afford graduate school so she worked as a waitress while attempting to convince film students to let her shoot their thesis films.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

She took jobs in the low-wage services sector, working first as a waitress in Florida, then a maid in Maine and finally as a retail associate at a Walmart store in Minnesota.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Her big break in film came in a waitress role in Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore in 1974, which earned her an Oscar nomination.

Read more on BBC

“People in love are boring,” she notes of a steady, chatty customer known simply as the waitress.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Smith’s mother was a waitress who also took in ironing.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• flight attendant 
• hostess 
• stewardess 
• waiter