valet
/ˈvalɪt
/ /ˈvaleɪ /noun
1A man’s personal male attendant, who is responsible for his clothes and appearance.These butlers, footmen, valets, drivers, personal assistants, and bodyguards knew where the bodies lay....
- I have no idea how the others manage to take such personal attentions for granted, to the point that they can't function without their personal maids and valets.
- While waiting for his trial, Galileo was housed in a luxurious apartment overlooking the Vatican gardens and provided with a personal valet.
Synonyms
manservant, man, personal attendant, gentleman's gentleman, Jeeves;
French valet de chambre
British dated batman
1.1A hotel employee who attends to the clothes of guests: [as modifier]: a valet service...
- Also in the kit is information on the new valet unpack service, providing added assistance in the unpacking of boxes.
- At the hotel, the bellman should get $2 per bag carried and a concierge or a valet should get at least $2 per service.
- Their duties include acting as valets for male guests.
2North American A person employed to clean or park cars: he handed his keys to the parking valet [as modifier]: valet parking...
- However, in Los Angeles, even the most ordinary mid-range restaurant will happily employ a valet service to park your car and bring it back round to the front door for you, to coincide with your departure.
- A valet recently refused to park her Land Rover because it was a complete mess.
- When the valets park your car in a covered spot, the fee is the same as uncovered.
verb (valets, valeting, valeted) [with object]
1Act as a valet to (a particular man): one evening when I was valeting him, Mr Charles told me he had met my father...
- She did the fine laundry, and looked after 'his' clothes, and valeted him.
- It doesn't hurt my pride to valet him.
- He valeted Lord Oldcastle when he went on the special mission to Berlin.
1.1 [no object] Work as a valet.
2Clean (a car), especially on the inside: try not to spill anything on the seat—I just had the thing valeted...
- I personally did not hear the shots being fired as I had the vacuum on valeting a car with the radio going full blast.
- Braintree Council has leased about 20 parking spaces in Braintree's George Yard car park to Car Valet UK to wash and valet cars.
- The 28-year-old England captain also spent £74,000 on parking and valeting his five cars; £54,000 on food; and £9,000 on TV and video.
Origin
Late 15th century (denoting a footman acting as an attendant to a horseman): from French; related to vassal.
Rich men who could afford to employ a valet to look after their clothes had to be careful that he was also not a varlet (mid 16th century), ‘an unprincipled man’, as the words are essentially the same. French valet ‘attendant’ and its early variant varlet are related to vassal (Late Middle English), from medieval Latin vassallus ‘retainer’, which derived from a Celtic word. The first valets were 15th-century footmen who acted as attendants on a horseman.