Menial

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Menial \Men"ial\, n.
     1. A domestic servant or retainer, esp. one of humble rank;
        one employed in low or servile offices.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. A person of a servile character or disposition.


        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Menial \Men"ial\, a. [OE. meneal, fr. meine, maine, household,
     OF. maisni['e]e, maisnie, LL. mansionaticum. See {Mansion},
     and cf. {Meine}, n., {Meiny}.]
     [1913 Webster]
     1. Belonging to a retinue or train of servants; performing
        servile office; serving.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Two menial dogs before their master pressed.
                                                    --Dryden.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Pertaining to servants, esp. domestic servants; servile;
        low; mean; as, menial tasks. " Menial offices." --Swift.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  menial
       adj : used of unskilled work (especially domestic work) [syn: {humble},
              {lowly}]
       n : a domestic servant [syn: {dogsbody}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  91 Moby Thesaurus words for "menial":
     attendant, attending, base, blue-collar worker, bootlicker,
     breadwinner, brown-nosing, casual, casual laborer, common laborer,
     cringing, day laborer, degrading, demeaning, domestic,
     domestic servant, drudge, employee, factory worker, fag, fawning,
     flattering, flunky, free lance, free-lancer, full-time worker,
     gofer, hand, help, helping, humble, ignoble, industrial worker,
     jobber, jobholder, laborer, laboring man, lackey, leech,
     lickspittle, low, lowly, mean, migrant, minion, ministering,
     moiler, navvy, obeisant, obsequious, office temporary, parasite,
     proletarian, roustabout, routine, salaried worker, scullion,
     self-employed person, serf, servant, servile, serving, servitor,
     servitorial, slave, slavey, slavish, stiff, submissive,
     subservient, sycophant, sycophantic, temporary, toady, toadying,
     toiler, turnspit, underling, unskilled, wage earner, wage slave,
     wageworker, waiting, worker, workgirl, workhand, working girl,
     workingman, workingwoman, workman, yes-man