waitress
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Etymology tree
Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key): /ˈweɪ.tɹɪs/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Noun
[edit]
waitress (plural waitresses)
- A female attendant who serves customers in a restaurant, café, or similar.
- Near-synonym: waiter (variably hypernymous or coordinate)
- a waitress in a cocktail bar
- 2007 August 12, Andrew Gensler, “Dancing Away the Heartache, Tacos Included”, in The New York Times[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2 December 2024:
- It would take a few more beers, but when the liquid courage kicked in, his wobbly legs were unable to keep pace with the fleetfooted waitress, who rolled her eyes, smiling, and finally twirled away.
- 2007, Thomas Quealy, M + M:
- The chefs never cooked before, the cashiers never cashiered before, the dishwashers never dishwashed before, the waitresses never waitressed before, and the managers never managed before.
- 2024 May 16, very tall bart, [YTP] State of the Union[2], spoken by Penis Prager (Dennis Prager):
- I ask everybody… A waitress, flight attendant… …someone I’m shitting next to on the plane… “You know what my biggest hobby is?” Puking.
Usage
[edit]As with various other words with the -ess/-er distinction or equivalent inflectional distinction (for example, actress/actor, acrobatess/acrobat, astronautess/astronaut), many English speakers no longer place great cognitive emphasis on the gender distinction and simply use the -er form for everyone who plays the role (i.e., as an epicene form); but for some of these terms (such as waitress), the older usage (invariably marking the gender) remains in common use as well, coexisting in usage.
Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]female waiter
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Verb
[edit]waitress (third-person singular simple present waitresses, present participle waitressing, simple past and past participle waitressed)
- To work as a waitress.
- Hypernyms: wait, wait tables
- Coordinate term: waiter
- 2004, Janelle Taylor, Dying To Marry:
- But it never did heal properly and Lizzie stayed on at the bar — waitressing until she came of legal age to bar-tend.
- 2007, Thomas Quealy, M + M:
- The chefs never cooked before, the cashiers never cashiered before, the dishwashers never dishwashed before, the waitresses never waitressed before, and the managers never managed before.
- 2016, Anne-Marie Casey, “The Land of Exile and Redemption”, in The Real Liddy James, London: Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN, page 237:
- She cleaned houses and waitressed and tutored rich kids all the way through college.
Anagrams
[edit]Categories:
- English terms suffixed with -ess (female)
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English verbs
- en:Occupations
- en:Female people
- English female equivalent nouns
