char-boy

plural char-boys · alternative charboy

1. datedA young male employed to do housework or other odd jobs.

   They think only of the tasks of a slave, a drudge, or a char-boy.

   1885, Leroy M. Yale, M.D. (medical editor), Marion Harland (Editor of General Nursery Topics), “Babyhood”, in Babyhood, A Monthly Magazine For Mothers, volume 2, page 409

   4 more examples

   When they were hastily summoned at dawn by one of the char-boys, they found the janitor in his little room, bent almost double, and to all appearance dead.

   1892, André Laurie, Paschal Grousset, Schoolboy Days in Russia, page 275

   "The whole kingdom is aware of the facts. Not a char-boy within fifty miles but what knows that I haven't had a change of pearls for three weeks!"

   1924, Earle Ennis, “A Royal Hiatus”, in Radio, volume 6, page 21

   Mr. Ailes rose from a char boy in the Treasury Department to a leading figure in Washington's financial sphere.

   1925, McFadden Business Publications (publisher), “Death of Milton E. Ailes, President Riggs National Bank, Washington D.C.”, in The Southern Banker, volumes 44-45, page 30

   Proper char-boys, clean sheets and blankets, soft pillows, pyjamas and - best of all - hot and cold showers.

   1996, Roy Humphreys, To Stop a Rising Sun, Reminiscences of Wartime in India and Burma, page 59