woman servant

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English

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Noun

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woman servant (plural woman servants or women servants)

  1. Alternative form of womanservant
    • 1794, Charlotte Smith, chapter IV, in The Banished Man. [], volume I, London: [] T[homas] Cadell, Jun. and W[illiam] Davies, (successors to Mr. [Thomas] Cadell) [], →OCLC, pages 91–92:
      [] they learned that all the domeſtics had appeared; and the women ſervants, began to be very eloquent in praiſe of D’Alonville, to whom they declared the preſervation of the family had been entirely owing; []
    • 1916, H. G. Wells, Mr. Britling Sees It Through[1], Book I, Chapter 1, § 9:
      But two cheerful women servants appeared from what was presumably the kitchen direction, wheeling a curious wicker erection, which his small guide informed him was called Aunt Clatter—manifestly deservedly—and which bore on its shelves the substance of the meal.
    • 2002, Marilyn French, “Industrialization”, in From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women, volumes 3 (Infernos and Paradises, the Triumph of Capitalism in the 19th Century), The Feminist Press at The City University of New York, published 2008, →ISBN, page 68:
      It was no longer acceptable for employers to beat servants, but some pushed woman servants around or boxed their ears or scolded them humiliatingly, calling them “silly girl,” “lazybones,” or “blockhead.”