Varlet

//ˈvɑːlət// noun

Definitions

Noun
  1. 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. 2
    in medieval times a youth acting as a knight's attendant as the first stage in training for knighthood wordnet
  3. 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. 4
    a deceitful and unreliable scoundrel wordnet
  5. 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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  1. 6
    The jack. obsolete

Etymology

From Middle English varlet, varlette, from Old French varlet, variant of vadlet, vallet, vaslet. Doublet of valet.

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