Varlet
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A servant or attendant. obsolete
"The varlet, or follower of the merchant, who was still a youth, though his vigorous frame and embrowned cheek denoted equally severe exercise and rude exposure, started and reddened at this free inquiry, which was enforced by a hand slapped familiarly on his knee, and such a squeeze of the leg as denoted the freedom of the camp."
- 2 in medieval times a youth acting as a knight's attendant as the first stage in training for knighthood wordnet
- 3 Specifically, a youth acting as a knight's attendant at the beginning of his training for knighthood. historical
"[T]here was a little, sleek, fat clerk of the name of Chaucer, who was so apt at rondel, sirvente, or tonson, that no man dare give back a foot from the walls, lest he find it all set down in his rhymes and sung by every underling and varlet in the camp."
- 4 a deceitful and unreliable scoundrel wordnet
- 5 A rogue or scoundrel. archaic
"[W]hen the worlde is fraughted with ſo manye varlettes, that it will be a long time ere a man ſhall diſcerne the faythful from the Hipocrites."
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- 6 The jack. obsolete
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"An ape's an ape, a varlet's a varlet, though they be clad in silk or scarlet."
Etymology
From Middle English varlet, varlette, from Old French varlet, variant of vadlet, vallet, vaslet. Doublet of valet.