scullery-maid

A form of scullery maid — In a large house, a domestic servant, of lowest status, whose job is to wash dishes and perform other menial chores.

Meanings

nounscullery-maid (plural scullery-maids)

plural scullery-maids

  1. alternativeAlternative form of scullery maid.
    3 more examples

    Of course, it will be objected, in the case of the large and very large houses, that it has been customary to take the cooks and scullery-maids into the country for the summer months, and that, where the families adopt the central supply kitchen system, they will be cookless and scullery-maidless in their rural homes.

    1893 February, George Somes Layard, “The Doom of the Domestic Cook”, in The Nineteenth Century: A Monthly Review, volume XXXIII, number CXCII, New York: Leonard Scott Publication Co.; London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, Limited, page 312

    “Ah then, you may be sure that when the scullery-maid was dancing, he observed her steps with the closest nicety;” said Lucio—“[…]He dabbled in hypnotic science when he was with me in India; I have often warned him of the danger there is in practising this force on the uninitiated. But—a scullery-maid!—heavens!—there are so many scullery-maids! One more or less with the ‘jumps’ will not matter.[…]”

    1895, Marie Corelli, chapter XI, in The Sorrows of Satan, or The Strange Experience of One Geoffrey Tempest, Millionaire, London: Methuen & Co., pages 125–126

    “Not so much of your Ada! My name ain’t Ada,” she said, tilting up her nose. “I thought all scullery-maids were called Ada,” answered Reggie. “That shows what little you know about scullery-maids, mister, and you don’t know anything at all about me. I’m not a scullery-maid. I’m an under-housemaid.[…]”

    1907, Frank [Collins] Richardson, 2835 Mayfair, New York, N.Y.: Mitchell Kennerley, page 17
Cite this entry
APA

scullery-maid. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/scullery-maid

MLA

“scullery-maid.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/scullery-maid. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “scullery-maid,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/scullery-maid.

Source: scullery-maid on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.