Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Of or relating to work or a job regarded as servile.
- adjective Of, relating to, or appropriate for a servant.
- noun A servant, especially a domestic servant.
- noun A person who has a servile or low nature.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Belonging to a retinue or train of servants; serving.
- Pertaining to servants or domestic service; servile.
- noun A domestic servant; one of a body of household servants: now used chiefly as a term of disparagement.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A domestic servant or retainer, esp. one of humble rank; one employed in low or servile offices.
- noun A person of a servile character or disposition.
- adjective Belonging to a retinue or train of servants; performing servile office; serving.
- adjective Pertaining to servants, esp. domestic servants; servile; low; mean.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Of or relating to work normally performed by a
servant . - adjective Of or relating to unskilled work.
- noun A servant, especially a domestic servant.
- noun A person who has a
subservient nature.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective used of unskilled work (especially domestic work)
- noun a domestic servant
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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It is noteworthy that the Tahitian does not distinguish between what we call menial labor and other work.
Mystic Isles of the South Seas. Frederick O'Brien 1900
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Only as a menial is the Colored American to be seen – the Nation's deliberate and cowardly tribute to the Southern demand "to keep the Negro in his place."
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Unless they have a valuable talent that is not tied to their intelligence, most of them are going to wind up in menial positions making minimum wage.
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My own view is that there are probably cognitive and possibly neurological differences which contribute to this pattern, but that given my experience both in menial jobs and professional areas dealing with colleagues of different backgrounds, I do not believe that African-Americans are inferior.
The Volokh Conspiracy » But Isn’t It a Bit Hard to Predict With a 7-Year-Old? 2010
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Any time lost in menial labor is painful and expensive.
Women Grow Business » Overcome Entrepreneurial Shock with Online Project Collaboration 2009
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In a not too distant future, water shortages force a young laborer (Luis Fernando Peña) to a Tijuana firm that employs specially equipped people to virtually control robots in menial U.S. jobs.
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But even these numbers are misleading, as many of those on staff serve in menial jobs such as cooks or gardeners.
Afghan government falls short in Kandahar Joshua Partlow 2010
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In a not too distant future, water shortages force a young laborer (Luis Fernando Peña) to a Tijuana firm that employs specially equipped people to virtually control robots in menial U.S. jobs.
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Other refugees will be used as cheap labour in menial jobs and will be resettled in remote areas that are unacceptable for Jews to live in.
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Other refugees will be used as cheap labour in menial jobs and will be resettled in remote areas that are unacceptable for Jews to live in.
kringlan commented on the word menial
My opponent got 74 points for playing this word at scrabble. Definately not a menial word in this case.
November 21, 2007