wood-and-water joey

British

noun

informal a person employed to carry out menial tasks

"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 wood-and-water joey

from the biblical phrase ``hewers of wood and drawers of water'' (Joshua 9:21) and _joey

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.

I'm not going to be wood-and-water Joey, I can tell ye, not for you nor no other men.

From Project Gutenberg

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