Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A man's male servant, who takes care of his clothes and performs other personal services.
- n. An employee, as in a hotel or on a ship, who performs personal services for guests or passengers.
- v. To act as a personal servant to; attend.
- v. To work as a valet.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A man-servant who attends on a man's person. Also called valet de chambre. Valets, or varlets, were originally the sons of knights, and later sons of the nobility before they attained the age of chivalry, who served as pages.
- n. In the manège, a kind of goad or stick armed with a point of iron.
- To attend on as valet; act the valet to.
Wiktionary
- n. A man's personal male attendant, responsible for his clothes and appearance.
- n. A hotel employee performing such duties for guests.
- n. professional wrestling A female performer in professional wrestling, acting as either a manager or personal chaperone; often used to attract and titillate male members of the audience.
- n. A female chaperone who accompanies a man, and is usually not married to him.
- n. A person employed to clean or park cars.
- n. A wooden stand on which to hold clothes and accessories in preparation for dressing.
- v. transitive To clean and service (a car), as a valet does.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A male waiting servant; a servant who attends on a gentleman's person; a body servant.
- n. (Man.) A kind of goad or stick with a point of iron.
WordNet 3.0
- v. serve as a personal attendant to
- n. a manservant who acts as a personal attendant to his employer
Etymologies
- French; related to vassal. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English valette, from Old French vaslet, valet, servant, squire, from Vulgar Latin *vassellitus, diminutive of *vassus, vassal; see vassal. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“He did not disturb his _valet de chambre_, who was sleeping soundly at some distance; he dressed himself, and the valet, in a great fright, sprang up, thinking he had been deficient in his duty; but the king sent him back again, commanding him to preserve the most absolute silence.”
“_valet_ of a woman; who does not know that a man wears a shirt, and that a valet is male?”
“Ovid said of Callimachus _quamvis ingenio non valet, arte valet_. [”
“But, if the valet is the property of the man, is obliged to perform this service, and is not paid for it, he is not economically independent.”
“Then go to a place where parking valet is a courtesy.”
“Example – The valet is inside the driveway, and the car is parked on a parking lot without leaving the street.”
“Ya, the trulucks valet is ripoff regardless of what they are charging.”
“The valet is in fact atrocious … hard to understand in a hotel.”
“Under the name valet underground, it was posted on YouTube, got rubber?”
“Under the name valet underground, it was posted on YouTube, got rubber, and then later removed, ut it's hard to remove this from your mind.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘valet’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
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FUN - Jeeves and Wooster - Jeeves
"Jeevesisms" as heard from the valet Jeeves in P.G. Wodehouse's "Jeeves and Wooster" stories.
abject, attire, boudoir, be agog to learn, breach of peace, companionship of ..., contract an engag..., correct orifice, determined temper..., edifice, endeavor to ascer..., expatiate and 46 more...
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Bridesmaid revisited
The Sacred & Profane Memories of a Maid of Honor.
dress, bridesmaid, maid of honor, plane ticket, camera, batteries, Catholicism, beach, wire and ribbon f..., champagne, map, Jesus and 54 more...
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Chap stickies
Words associated with Chappism.
chap, brideshead revisited, jeeves, woosterian, rough shag, spigot, anarcho-dandyism, chumrade, chapette, wing-backed armchair, snood, boogie-woogie and 26 more...
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Stalking Darkness
Words and phrases from Lynn Flewelling's book, Stalking Darkness.
inquest, halyard, catamount, occlude, founder, more, grouse, grapple, water butt, antepenultimate, palimpsest, hob and 196 more...
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Who Are You?
No one ever says, "I want to be a somnambulist when I grow up." But don't let that get in the way of organizing your Wordie lists.
chevalier, somnambulist, sommelier, troubadour, vicar, majordomo, caliph, polyglot, polymath, apprentice, nuyorican, privateer and 107 more...
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5-0
Hecko, words! I’m so happy I’ve found you. I want to keep you all and never want to lose you again. I hope you like it here.
amscray, thistledown, tine, tinsel, pungent, snarl, wail, lanky, viscid, dawdle, luminous, stow and 2719 more...
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Nullologue
nullologue, vaudeville, debauchery, debauched, libertine, nothing, dhadak, tz pf, nothingology, goodbyeology, sharmuta, manifesto and 874 more...
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Clearinghouse
For stuff to simply reside.
calcar, pinion, espadrille, antipodes, peregrine, cormorant, tanager, vireo, farrago, undervest, passerine, oscine and 881 more...
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At Your Service
Servants who are traditionally male. Inspired by hernesheir's maids list (as well as Downton Abbey)
footman, chasseur, hurkaru, chobdar, lackey, jeames, manservant, pantryman, groom, palefrenier, coistrel, ostler and 106 more...
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MacBean's Words
verisimilitude, antediluvian, schadenfreude, eviscerate, exsanguinate, onomatopoeia, aesthetic, apocryphal, aubergine, byronic, brouhaha, bordello and 523 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (U,V)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
virgin's bower, umiak, underworld, undine, unearthly, unfurl, unicorn, universe, unquiet, undead, uraeus, urn and 58 more...
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20100502
handyman, fixture, temper, draft, smuggle, stash, countergirl, relapse, wean, chill, cramp, sneak and 32 more...
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V
vixen, vague, vivacious, valley, vogue, veil, vine, vessel, veela, verity, vintage, vampire and 8 more...
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Dressed To Kill
Words ranging from smartly sartorial to embarrassingly ornate.
bedizen, frippet, haberdashery, peacock, spatterdashes, monocle, popinjay, coxcomb, dandiprat, carpet knight, ascot, pulchritudinous and 43 more...
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"The Innocents" Screenplay
bedraggled, parson, ward, brusquely, indignant, dappled, alight, folly, wisp, emanate, hearth, scone and 19 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for valet.

madmouth must be pronounced unlike the French, with a fully realized 't' at the end (if you subscribe to Chapism, that is) Jun 22, 2009