kitchen-boy

English

Alternative forms

kitchen boy, kitchenboy

Etymology

kitchen +‎ boy

Noun

kitchen-boy (plural kitchen-boys)

1. A boy who does menial tasks in the kitchen of a large establishment.
   • 1880, Charlotte Adams, “The Boy who Took a Boarder”, in The Growing World, page 347:

     Perhaps he was watching for the butcher or the milkman, for he was a kitchen-boy in the household of a rich and mighty cardinal.

   • 1894, W. F. Kirby, The Hero of Esthonia:

     The king's cook engaged him as kitchen-boy, and he now had to turn the joints on the spit every day.

   • 2013, Eleanor Farjeon, Martin Pippin in the Daisy-Field:

     He shall serve his time as my kitchen-boy, and learn no more than I choose.