Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. One employed in a particular occupation or activity: a kitchen wallah; rickshaw wallahs.
- n. An important person in a particular field or organization: "the Ritz, a favorite haunt of Republican wallahs” ( John Robinson).
Wiktionary
- n. India A servant or other person responsible for something, often specified after it, for example kitchen wallah.
- n. UK, slang A guy or bloke.
- interj. common misspelling of voilà.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) A black variety of the jaguar; -- called also
tapir tiger .
WordNet 3.0
- n. usually in combination: person in charge of or employed at a particular thing
Etymologies
- From Hindi -vālā, pertaining to, connected with. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Aug 5th, 2008 at 1: 32 pm fedthefish tiffin wallah is another great choice. or, if you want an even easier intro to indian go to one of those indo-chinese fusion places in curry hill (like indo munch) that has chinese food but with some indian flare.”
“Hoo!" shouted the black, leaping from the ground, and then bursting out with a strange noise something between a rapid repetition of the word wallah and the gobbling of a turkey-cock; and then seeing that the boys laughed he repeated the performance, waved his clumsy spear over his head, and made a dash at the bullocks, prodding them in the ribs, administering a poke or two to the horses, and sending them off at a gallop toward the port.”
“It is "- wallah," and can be added to a service to denote the kind of person who provides it, generation after generation.”
“At his side was his No 2, Danny Alexander, who had accidentally brandished chunks of the speech to the cameras on Tuesday, and who yesterday paid penance by being Mr Osborne's water-wallah, making sure that his glass and carafe were topped up at all times.”
The Guardian: Spending review serves up sixpences in a pudding of manure and gravel
“Yes | No | Report from J4huntfish wrote 3 weeks 3 days ago get an altoids can and light my fre firesteel take 5 cotton balls smeared in petrolium jelly take som tinfoil wrap th coltton balls in it flatten the tin foil put flint and cotton balls in altoids can and wallah”
I'm new to starting fires with flint. I am having a heck of a time trying to get a fire started.
“She also bore another wildman, a science-wallah, a eunuch, a freemartin, and the Princess of the Farther Spaces.”
“I decorated with some vanilla buttercream and wallah!”
“I slabbed some classic white frosting on top and wallah, I had myself some pretty cupcakes.”
“Vishnu at the Cat Circus: the long, concluding novella in the volume is an account of three siblings: one genetically enhanced to be a neo-Brahmin, one a rogue AI wallah who is at the center of the ascension of humanity's computers into a godlike state, and one who remains human and bails out the teeming masses who are tossed back and forth by the technological upheaval.”
“He went on to tell me Shubal (as they call him) is a rare old-school kirtan wallah who has studied for over 30 years with many masters.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘wallah’.
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Even More 250 Spelling Words
Good for intermediate and advanced spellers and anybody who wants to use words with precision
maculature, mochila, twankay, hyson, isocryme, glasnost, ozaena, locavore, frazil, sclaff, chautauqua, bergamot and 238 more...
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colleen's words
yellow, green, pie, blue, fur, people, incense, book, brown, avuncular, mountain, fog and 1316 more...
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Reading Reading
Words from the works of Peter Reading - at least one from each (except the Schwitters-esque erosions, cut-ups etc).
overbright, pimpled, muskiness, effuse, stoup, maul, unlevel, viscid, perfidious, glibly, aloes, drouth and 449 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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urbanorama's Words
dicker, murgatroyd, wheedle, snicker, snuffle, whinge, swag-bellied, fulsome, sozzle, gilly-gaupus, invaginate, cuddy and 13 more...
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Good words
Words I like.
unacceptable, sprezzatura, milquetoast, antinomianism, gossamer, filigree, louche, crepuscular, whorish, blogorrhea, cruciverbalist, eleemosynary and 68 more...
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perhapsolutely's Words
polyradiculoneuro..., abulia, abubble, abscission, abaft, zareba, abatis, abigail, abiogenesis, ablate, ablaut, abo and 1705 more...
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While Europe Slept/America Alone/Amer...
Words gathered during my recent "current affairs" reading bender.
It's not an addiction, I can quit any time I want.proforma, distaff, senescent, simplisme, arrondissement, brasserie, cynosure, entente, inure, elision, contrariety, calumny and 53 more...
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Wordie is ...
phrontifugic, chronophagic, wallah, glaikery, grammatolatry, logoleptic
Tweets
Looking for tweets for wallah.

yarb Citation on bogs. Aug 2, 2008
colleen Anglo-Indian: carrier-of (howdah-wallah), purveyor-of (chai-wallah), worker-at (office-wallah). Mar 11, 2007