Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A female janitor.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A female janitor.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a female janitor

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

janitor +‎ -ess

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Examples

  • In this story, Patrick Collins, who has just stabbed his wife at the kindergarten where she worked as a janitress, is described in these terms: Collins is a young man in his early thirties, healthy and muscular….

    Frank Norris 2010

  • As she entered, it was closed behind her, but to her surprise, and much to her relief, she found that the janitress was a nun.

    The King's Warrant A Story of Old and New France Alfred H. Engelbach

  • The janitress was the one who pressed for an answer.

    The Life of the Party James M. Preston 1910

  • Also, there was a straight fireplace in the dining-room, which the Precious Ones described as being "lovelly," and the janitress was a humble creature who had won the Little Woman's heart by unburdening herself of numerous sad experiences and bitter wrongs, besides a number of perfectly just opinions concerning janitors, individually and at large.

    The Van Dwellers A Strenuous Quest for a Home Albert Bigelow Paine 1899

  • With Dame Judy Dench as Ryan's wife, Mercedes, who, after a lifetime of "manual labor" meaning "lifting a martini to her mouth," is forced to take her first-ever job as a janitress in the very building that, until recently, she and her husband occupied, a situation that provides endless brutally hilarious encounters!

    Jilly Gagnon: Riches to Rags: Hollywood Cashes in on the Recession 2009

  • Presumably, the answer she's looking for is not "write a book with an aging male protagonist whose struggles with identity and mortality are alleviated by an affair with the hot lady janitress."

    Jennifer Weiner: Why Can't a Woman (Writer) Be More Like a Man? 2009

  • He crawled down again and sought out the janitress, who stopped watching an ice-wagon in the street to say:

    Our Mr. Wrenn 2004

  • Mary had had a vague idea of cleaning it herself, but Miss Mason demanded to see the janitress, and ascended, after a ten minutes 'emersion in the noisome gloom of the basement, in high satisfaction.

    The Nest Builder Beatrice Forbes-Robertson Hale

  • They dashed back to the studio and reassured themselves as to the labors of the janitress.

    The Nest Builder Beatrice Forbes-Robertson Hale

  • Mary's elbow in the other, chattered his few words of Italian to the janitress, chaffed Miss Mason, and had them all laughing by the time they reached the street.

    The Nest Builder Beatrice Forbes-Robertson Hale

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