Definitions

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A subordinate keeper or guardian.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete A subordinate keeper or guardian.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

under- +‎ keeper

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Examples

  • One was her father, another the underkeeper, and the third was a stranger.

    The New Tenant 1906

  • Bell, the Squire's underkeeper, with such murderous fury that it took all the men in the room to pull him off.

    Bob, Son of Battle Alfred Ollivant 1900

  • Upon which the L.C.J. ordered the Marshal to be called, and questioned him about the safe keeping of the prisoner, but could find nothing: except the Marshal said that he had been informed by the underkeeper that they had seen a person outside his door or going up the stairs to it: but there was no possibility the person should have got in.

    Ghost Stories of an Antiquary Part 2: More Ghost Stories 1899

  • Under the conditions, when he met Bates, he would probably be told that Jenkins, underkeeper and Territorial lance corporal, had resolved to end the vicious career of a hoodie crow, and had not scrupled to reach the wily robber with a bullet.

    The Strange Case of Mortimer Fenley Louis Tracy 1895

  • Charles and his companion, a strapping young underkeeper, evidently anxious to distinguish himself, waited, listening intently in the intervals of silence.

    The Danvers Jewels, and Sir Charles Danvers Mary Cholmondeley 1892

  • By the letter of the judges of the circuit court of the United States, held at Boston in June last, and the inclosed application of the underkeeper of the jail at that place, of which copies are herewith transmitted, Congress will perceive the necessity of making a suitable provision for the maintenance of prisoners committed to the jails of the several States under the authority of the United States.

    A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents Volume 1, part 1: George Washington 1878

  • The underkeeper jumped off the bank at once into the water, which was about up to his knees; but by this time Bob was working the boat along more quickly, and before the underkeeper had waded out many yards Bob had seated himself, put out the second scull, and, helped by the stream, was able to laugh defiance at his would-be captors.

    Quicksilver The Boy With No Skid To His Wheel George Manville Fenn 1870

  • "Here, I ain't going any further," grumbled the underkeeper.

    Quicksilver The Boy With No Skid To His Wheel George Manville Fenn 1870

  • I am sure if Tom had been an underkeeper, as Mr. Roberts once talked of, this would never have happened.

    The Young Duke Benjamin Disraeli 1842

  • At the door of the servants 'hall the two comfortable policemen in their dark uniforms and shining buttons sunned their fair beards as they smoked their morning pipes, exchanging a remark in a low voice about once in five minutes, and never without previously looking round to see whether any one was listening to them, but chiefly occupied in watching an underkeeper who was feeding the big hounds in a sunny corner of the inner court.

    Greifenstein 1881

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