Meaning & use
English butler
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Meanings
nouncountable
A male head servant in a large household in England, traditionally in charge of the dining room, wine and other servants.
Grammar: Countable: an English butler, two English butlers.
Patterns
- an English butler to someone
The old estate once employed an English butler who managed twenty staff.
In the novel, the English butler quietly serves tea while the family argues.
My grandmother remembered the family's English butler from her childhood in Kent.
nouncountablefigurativehumorous
A stereotype of someone, especially a servant or professional, who behaves in a very formal, restrained and unfailingly polite way.
Grammar: Often used figuratively with like or as: he spoke like an English butler.
Patterns
- act like an English butler
- sound like an English butler
The hotel doorman carried himself like an English butler, never raising his voice.
He answered the angry customer with the calm of an English butler.
Her voice had the dry politeness of an English butler.
Word forms
| plural | English butlers |
|---|
Common combinations
- a stiff English butler
- He played a stiff English butler in the television drama.
- hire an English butler
- The millionaire decided to hire an English butler for his mansion.
- like an English butler
- She spoke like an English butler, calm and exact.
- the stereotypical English butler
- The stereotypical English butler is polite, silent and slightly disapproving.
- trained as an English butler
- He trained as an English butler before moving to the United States.
Synonyms and how they differ
- butler
- Butler is the plain term for the job, while English butler adds the traditional, formal image associated with England.
- manservant
- Manservant is old-fashioned and can mean any male servant, but an English butler is a senior one with authority over the staff.
- valet
- A valet looks after one man's clothes and personal needs, whereas a butler runs the whole household.
Word family
- butler noun
- the chief male servant of a household
- butlering noun
- the work of acting as a butler
- housekeeper noun
- the person, often female, who manages the household's domestic work
Practice
The hotel porter answered the furious guest in such a calm, formal voice that he sounded like an ______.
Choose one answer.
English butler is the stereotype of unflappable formality. The other jobs have no strong link to that manner.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “English butler”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.