chief cook and bottle washer
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See also: chief cook and bottle-washer
English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
- chief cook and bottle-washer
- head cook and bottle washer
- head cook and bottle-washer
- head chef and bottle-washer
Etymology[edit]
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Noun[edit]
chief cook and bottle washer (plural chief cooks and bottle washers)
- (humorous, informal) Someone whose responsibilities include absolutely everything, from the highest level (chief cook) to the lowest (bottle washer)
- 1809, Bartlett Jere Whiting, quoting Abraham B. Lindsley, Love and Friendship; or, Yankee Notions: A Comedy in Three Acts[1], quoted in Early American Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, Dramatic Repository, Shakespeare-Gallery: D Longworth, →ISBN, act II, page 40:
- Why sometimes I acts cook, steward, cabin boy, sailor, mate, and bottle washer, for matter 'f that, for there's on'y four on us aboard on her;