Word.ws English Dictionary

chief cook and bottle washer

chief cook and bottle washer noun: someone whose responsibilities include absolutely everything, from the highest level (chief cook) to the lowest (bottle washer).

Noun

chief cook and bottle washer (plural chief cooks and bottle washers)

  1. (humorous, informal) Someone whose responsibilities include absolutely everything, from the highest level (chief cook) to the lowest (bottle washer).
    • Near-synonyms: man Friday, gal Friday
    • Why sometimes I acts cook, steward, cabin boy, sailor, mate, and bottle washer, for matter 'f that, for there's on'y four on us aboard on her;1809, Bartlett Jere Whiting, quoting Abraham B. Lindsley, Love and Friendship; or, Yankee Notions: A Comedy in Three Acts, quoted in Early American Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, Dramatic...

Synonyms of chief cook and bottle washer

Forms of chief cook and bottle washer

pluralchief cooks and bottle washers
alternative formchief cook and bottle-washer

Questions about chief cook and bottle washer

What does chief cook and bottle washer mean?
Chief cook and bottle washer means someone whose responsibilities include absolutely everything, from the highest level (chief cook) to the lowest (bottle washer).
What part of speech is chief cook and bottle washer?
Chief cook and bottle washer is a noun.
What is the plural of chief cook and bottle washer?
The plural of chief cook and bottle washer is chief cooks and bottle washers.

Words near chief cook and bottle washer in the dictionary

  1. Chief Baron
  2. chief cell
  3. chief cells
  4. chief constable
  5. chief constables
  6. chief cook and bottle washer
  7. chief cook and bottle washers
  8. chief cook and bottle-washer
  9. chief cook and bottle-washers
  10. chief cooks and bottle washers
  11. chief cooks and bottle-washers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: chief cook and bottle washer (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-chief cook and bottle washer.wav.

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