gentleman's gentleman

English

Noun

gentleman's gentleman (plural gentleman's gentlemen or gentlemen's gentlemen)

1. (chiefly British) A valet or a man's personal manservant.
   • 1823, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 13, in St. Ronan's Well, volume II:

     Touchwood was by no means critically nice in his society, but was observed to converse as readily with a gentleman's gentleman, as with the gentleman to whom he belonged.

   • 1918, Jeffery Farnol, chapter 15, in Our Admirable Betty:

     [H]e put it away and, ringing the bell, demanded his valet. . . . In due time came a discreet knock and thereafter a discreet person entered, tall, quick-eyed, low-voiced, soft-stepping, he was a very model of a fashionable gentleman's gentleman.

   • 2007 November 15, Jasper Gerard, “Butlers: A Jeeves of my very own”, in Telegraph, UK, retrieved 16 January 2016:

     [H]e estimates that only 50 aristocrats still employ domestic staff (less than the number of London-based Russian plutocrats employing a gentleman's gentleman).

Further reading

• “gentleman's gentleman”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.