Adjacent Words

Servant definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SERV'ANT, [L. servans, from servo, to keep or hold; properly one that waits, that is, stops, holds, attends, or one that is bound.]
1. A person, male or female, that attends another for the pupose of performing menial offices for him, ot who is employed by another for such offices or for other labor, and is subject to his command. The word is correlative to master. Servant differs from slave, as the servant's subjection to a master is voluntary, the slave's is not. Every slave is a servant, but every servant is not a slave.
Servants are of various kinds; as household or domestic servants, menial servants; laborers, who are hired by the day, week or other term, and do not reside with their employers, ot if they board in the same house, are employed abroad and not in the domestic services; apprentices, who are bound for a term of years to serve a master, for the purpose of learning his trade or occupation.
In a legal sense, stewards, factors, bailifs and other agents, are servants for the time they are employed in such character, as they act in subordination to others.
2. One in a state of subjection.
3.In Scripture, a slave; a bondman; one purchased for money, and who was compelled to serve till the year of jubilee; also, one purchased for a term of years.
4. The subject of a king; as the servents of David or of Saul.
The Syrians became servants to David. 1 Samuel 8.
5. A person who voluntarily serves another or acts as his minister; as joshua was the servant of Moses, and the apostles the apostles the servants of Christ. So Christ himself is called a servant, Isaiah 42. Moses is called the servant of the Lord, Duet. 34.
6. A person employed or used as an unstrument in accomplishing God's purposes of mercy or wrath. So Nebuchadnezzar is called the servant of God. Jeremiah 25.
7. One who yields obedience to another. The saints are called servants of God, or of righteousness; and the wicked are called the servants of sin.
8. That which yields obedience, or acts on subordination as an instrument.
9. One that makes painful sacrifices in compliance with the weakness or wants of others.
10. A person of base condition or ignoble spirit.
11. A word of civilith. I am, sir, your humble or obedient servant.
Our betters tell us they are our humble servants, but understand us to be their slaves. Swift.
Servant of servants, one debased to the lowest condition of servitude.
SERV'ANT, v.t. To subject. [Not in use.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a person working in the service of another (especially in the household) [syn: servant, retainer]
2: in a subordinate position; "theology should be the handmaiden of ethics"; "the state cannot be a servant of the church" [syn: handmaid, handmaiden, servant]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from present participle of servir Date: 13th century one that serves others <a public servant>; especially one that performs duties about the person or home of a master or personal employer • servanthood noun • servantless adjective

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 a person who has undertaken (usu. in return for stipulated pay) to carry out the orders of an individual or corporate employer, esp. a person employed in a house on domestic duties or as a personal attendant. 2 a devoted follower, a person willing to serve another (a servant of Jesus Christ). Phrases and idioms: your humble servant Brit. archaic a formula preceding a signature or expressing ironical courtesy. your obedient servant Brit. a formula preceding a signature, now used only in certain formal letters. Etymology: ME f. OF (as SERVE)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Servant Serv"ant, n. [OE. servant, servaunt, F. servant, a & p. pr. of servir to serve, L. servire. See Serve, and cf. Sergeant.] 1. One who serves, or does services, voluntarily or on compulsion; a person who is employed by another for menial offices, or for other labor, and is subject to his command; a person who labors or exerts himself for the benefit of another, his master or employer; a subordinate helper. ``A yearly hired servant.'' --Lev. xxv. 53. Men in office have begun to think themselves mere agents and servants of the appointing power, and not agents of the government or the country. --D. Webster. Note: In a legal sense, stewards, factors, bailiffs, and other agents, are servants for the time they are employed in such character, as they act in subordination to others. So any person may be legally the servant of another, in whose business, and under whose order, direction, and control, he is acting for the time being. --Chitty. 2. One in a state of subjection or bondage. Thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt. --Deut. v. 15. 3. A professed lover or suitor; a gallant. [Obs.] In my time a servant was I one. --Chaucer. Servant of servants, one debased to the lowest condition of servitude. Your humble servant, or Your obedient servant, phrases of civility often used in closing a letter. Our betters tell us they are our humble servants, but understand us to be their slaves. --Swift.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Servant Serv"ant, v. t. To subject. [Obs.] --Shak.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(servants) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. A servant is someone who is employed to work at another person's home, for example as a cleaner or a gardener. N-COUNT 2. You can use servant to refer to someone or something that provides a service for people or can be used by them. The question is whether technology is going to be our servant or our master. N-COUNT see also civil servant

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

sur'-vant ('ebhedh; doulos): A very common word with a variety of meanings, all implying a greater or less degree of inferiority and want of freedom:

(1) The most frequent usage is as the equivalent of "slave" (which see), with its various shades in position (Ge 9:25; 24:9; Ex 21:5; Mt 10:24; Lu 17:7, and often); but also a hired workman where "hired servant" translates Hebrew and Greek expressions which differ from the above.

(2) An attendant in the service of someone, as Joshua was the "servant" the Revised Version (British and American) "minister" of Moses (Nu 11:28).

(3) As a 'term of respectful self-depreciation referring to one's self, "thy servant." or "your servant" is used in place of the personal pronoun of the first person:

(a) in the presence of superiors (Ge 19:2; 32:18, and often);

(b) in addressing the Supreme Being (1Sa 3:9; Ps 19:11; 27:9; Lu 2:29, and often).

(4) Officials of every grade are called the "servants" of kings, princes, etc. (1Sa 29:3; 2Sa 16:1; 1Ki 11:26; Pr 14:35, and often).

(5) The position of a king in relation to his people (1Ki 12:7).

(6) One who is distinguished as obedient and faithful to God or Christ (Jos 1:2; 2Ki 8:19; Da 6:20; Col 4:12; 2Ti 2:24). (7) One who is enslaved by sin (Joh 8:34).

William Joseph Mcglothlin

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Servitor, attendant, retainer, subaltern, dependant, subordinate helper. 2. Menial, domestic, drudge, slave.

Moby Thesaurus

Charlie McCarthy, Ganymede, acolyte, adherent, adjutant, agent, aid, aide, aide-de-camp, aider, amah, ancilla, appendage, appliance, assistant, attendant, au pair girl, auxiliary, ayah, best man, blue-collar worker, bondmaid, bondman, bondslave, bondsman, bondswoman, boots, boy, breadwinner, butler, captive, casual, casual laborer, charwoman, chatelaine, chattel, chattel slave, chauffeur, chef, churl, civil servant, cleaner, cleaning man, cleaning woman, coachman, coadjutant, coadjutor, coadjutress, coadjutrix, common laborer, concubine, contrivance, cook, creature, daily, dangler, day laborer, debt slave, dependent, deputy, device, domestic servant, driver, dummy, dupe, employee, executive officer, factory worker, factotum, flunky, follower, footman, free lance, free-lancer, full-time worker, galley slave, go-between, governess, groom, hand, handmaid, handmaiden, hanger-on, heeler, helot, help, helper, helpmate, helpmeet, henchman, homager, houseboy, housekeeper, houseman, implement, industrial worker, inferior, instrument, interagent, intermediary, intermediate, intermedium, jobber, jobholder, junior, laborer, laboring man, lackey, lever, liege, liege man, liege subject, lieutenant, maid, maidservant, man, manservant, mechanism, mediator, medium, menial, midwife, migrant, minion, moiler, nanny, navvy, nurse, nursemaid, odalisque, office temporary, organ, page, paranymph, paraprofessional, pawn, peon, plaything, postilion, proletarian, public servant, puppet, retainer, right-hand man, roustabout, salaried worker, satellite, scullion, second, secondary, self-employed person, seneschal, serf, servitor, shadow, sideman, slave, steward, stewardess, stiff, stooge, subject, subordinate, supporting actor, supporting instrumentalist, tagtail, temporary, theow, thrall, toiler, tool, toy, tweeny, underling, understrapper, upstairs maid, valet, vassal, vehicle, villein, wage earner, wage slave, wageworker, waiter, waitress, ward heeler, wine steward, worker, workgirl, workhand, working girl, workingman, workingwoman, workman