yeoman

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An attendant, servant, or lesser official in a royal or noble household.
2. n. A yeoman of the guard.
3. n. A petty officer performing chiefly clerical duties in the U.S. Navy.
4. n. An assistant or other subordinate, as of a sheriff.
5. n. A diligent, dependable worker.
6. n. A farmer who cultivates his own land, especially a member of a former class of small freeholders in England.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A retainer; a guard.
2. n. A gentleman attendant in a royal or noble household, ranking between a sergeant and a groom: as, yeoman for the month, a butler; yeoman of the crown; yeoman usher: applied also to attendants of lower grade: as, yeoman feuterer (seefeuterer); yeoman of the chamber; yeoman of the wardrobe. See also phrase yeoman of the guard, below.
3. n. One holding a subordinate position, as an attendant or assistant, journeyman, etc.
4. n. In old English law, one having free land of forty shillings by the year (previously five nobles), who was thereby qualified to serve on juries, vote for knights of the shire, and do any other act for which the law required one who was “probus et legalis homo” (Blackstone, Com., I. xii.); hence, in recent English use, one owning (and usually himself cultivating) a small landed property; a freeholder.
5. n. In the United States navy, an appointed petty officer who has charge of the stores in his department. The ship's yeoman has charge of the boatswains', carpenters', sailmakers' stores, etc., and the engineer's yeoman has charge of all stores in the engineer's department, while the paymaster's yeoman takes care of provisions, clothing, and small stores, and issues them as directed.
6. n. A member of the yeomanry cavalry. See yeomanry, 4.

Wiktionary

1. n. An official providing honorable service in a royal or high noble household, ranking between a squire and a page.
2. n. historical A former class of small freeholders who farm their own land; a commoner of good standing.
3. n. A subordinate, deputy, aide, or assistant.
4. n. A Yeoman Warder.
5. n. A clerk in the US navy, and US Coast Guard.
6. n. nautical In a vessel of war, the person in charge of the storeroom.
7. n. A member of the Yeomanry Cavalry officially chartered in 1794 originating around the 1760s.
8. n. A member of the Imperial Yeomanry officially created in 1890s and renamed in 1907.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A common man, or one of the commonly of the first or most respectable class; a freeholder; a man free born.
2. n. obsolete A servant; a retainer.
3. n. engraving A yeoman of the guard; also, a member of the yeomanry cavalry.
4. n. (Naut.) An interior officer under the boatswain, gunner, or carpenters, charged with the stowage, account, and distribution of the stores.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. officer in the (ceremonial) bodyguard of the British monarch
2. n. in former times was free and cultivated his own land