noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A machine (or, rarely, a person) that washes bottles.
2. 2
   A general factotum.

   "The damned bottle-washers stood about listening with their mouths stretched from ear to ear."

Synonyms

All synonyms

chief cook and bottle washer

Example

More examples

"The damned bottle-washers stood about listening with their mouths stretched from ear to ear."

Etymology

From bottle + washer.

Related phrases

chief cook and bottle washerhead cook and bottle washer

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