noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A bartender. informal

   "I sez to the barkeep' o' the hotel, "Show me the biggest doctor here.""

2. 2
   an employee who mixes and serves alcoholic drinks at a bar wordnet

Verb

1. 1
   To bartend; to keep a bar; to act as a barkeep. intransitive

   "I barkeeped in Pontiac, Michigan and, later in Detroit and Ypsilanti."

Synonyms

All synonyms

barkeeperbarkeeperbarmaidbarmanbarmanbartender

Example

More examples

"When the horse walked into the tavern, the barkeep asked, "Why the long face?""

Etymology

From bar + keep, a clipping of barkeeper.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.