Dictionary

varlet en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈvɑːlət/ (UK)
• (US) audio

Etymology

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

Meanings

1. (obsolete) A servant or attendant.
   • 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. 1840, [James Fenimore Cooper], chapter I, in Mercedes of Castile: Or, The Voyage to Cathay. […], volume I, Philadelphia, Pa.: Lea and Blanchard, →OCLC, page 19:
   • The Winchester Manorhouse has fled bodily, like a Dream of the old Night […]. House and people, royal and episcopal, lords and varlets, where are they? 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, chapter 8, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book II (The Ancient Monk):
2. (historical) Specifically, a youth acting as a knight's attendant at the beginning of his training for knighthood.
   • [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. 1891, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, The White Company, New York, N.Y.; Boston, Mass.: Thomas Y[oung] Crowell & Company […], →OCLC, page 138:
3. (archaic) A rogue or scoundrel.
   • My lady to be called a nasty Scotch wh–re by such a varlet!—To be sure I wish I had knocked his brains out with the punchbowl. 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC:
   • [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. 1574, Augustine Marlorate [i.e., Augustin Marlorat], “[Revelation 2:2]”, in Arthur Golding, transl., A Catholike Exposition vpon the Reuelation of Sainct Iohn. […], London: […] H[enry] Binneman, for L[ucas] Harison, and G[eorge] Bishop, →OCLC, folio 32, recto:
   • He was false, cunning, vulgar, ignoble; the cheapest kind of human product […] The white, puffy mother, with the high forehead, in the corner there, looked more like a lady; but if she were one, it was all the more shame to her to have mated with such a varlet, Ransom said to himself, making use, as he did generally, of terms of opprobrium extracted from the older English literature. 1885–1886, Henry James, chapter VIII, in The Bostonians […], London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 16 February 1886, →OCLC, 1st book, pages 57–58:
4. (obsolete) The jack.

Forms

Deriveds

varletess

Translations (22)

mk слу́га (servant or attendant) · nl schildknaap (youth acting as a knight’s attendant at the beginning of his training for knighthood) · mk и́змамник (rogue or scoundrel) · bg слуга (servant or attendant) · nl boer (jack) · mk џа́ндар (jack) · bg мошеник (rogue or scoundrel) · bg щитоносец (youth acting as a knight’s attendant at the beginning of his training for knighthood) · ru оружено́сец (youth acting as a knight’s attendant at the beginning of his training for knighthood) · bg вале (jack) · ru паж (servant or attendant) · mk паж (youth acting as a knight’s attendant at the beginning of his training for knighthood) · mk штито́носец (youth acting as a knight’s attendant at the beginning of his training for knighthood) · mk по́длец (rogue or scoundrel) · ru вале́т (jack) · bg паж (youth acting as a knight’s attendant at the beginning of his training for knighthood) · nl page (youth acting as a knight’s attendant at the beginning of his training for knighthood) · ru слуга́ (servant or attendant) · mk паж (servant or attendant) · ga bithiúnach (rogue or scoundrel) · mk ла́жго (rogue or scoundrel) · ru негодя́й (rogue or scoundrel)