Meanings
plural chief cooks and bottle washers · alternative chief cook and bottle-washer
- humorousinformalSomeone whose responsibilities include absolutely everything, from the highest level (chief cook) to the lowest (bottle washer).
Near-synonyms: man Friday, gal Friday
1 more example
Why sometimes I acts cook, steward, cabin boy, sailor, mate, and bottle washer, for matter 'f that, for there's on'y four on us aboard on her;
1809, Bartlett Jere Whiting, quoting Abraham B. Lindsley, Love and Friendship; or, Yankee Notions: A Comedy in Three Acts, quoted in Early American Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, Dramatic Repository, Shakespeare-Gallery: D Longworth, →ISBN, act II, page 40Synonyms: bottlewasher, do-all, factotum, head cook and bottle washer, head chef and bottle washer, man Friday, gal Friday
Synonyms & antonyms
nounSomeone whose responsibilities include absolutely everything, from the highest level (chief cook) to the lowest (bottle washer).
Cite this entry
chief cook and bottle washer. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/chief%20cook%20and%20bottle%20washer
“chief cook and bottle washer.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/chief%20cook%20and%20bottle%20washer. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “chief cook and bottle washer,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/chief%20cook%20and%20bottle%20washer.
Source: chief cook and bottle washer on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.