How to use menial in a sentence

12 example sentences · adjective, noun

Menial means of or relating to work normally performed by a servant. Example: “In feudal days lay brothers were usually uneducated commoners, who did most menial, manual labor while the learned priestly monks held the more spiritual jobs.”

Examples of menial by meaning

adjectiveOf or relating to work normally performed by a servant.

It delighted him to perform menial offices.1915, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter LXX, in Of Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC

adjectiveOf or relating to unskilled work.

Father Brown took the paper without a word, and obediently went to look for the coat; it was not the first menial work he had done in his life.1910 October 1, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, “The Queer Feet”, in The Innocence of Father Brown, London; New York, N.Y.: Cassell and...
For instance, controlling for the above-mentioned variables, migrants to Tangerang or Samarinda (rather than Medan) have a significantly greater chance of getting a craft (as opposed to menial) job.2011, Chris Manning, Sudarno Sumarto, Employment, Living Standards and Poverty in Contemporary Indonesia, →ISBN

adjectiveServile; low; mean.

a menial wretch

nounA servant, especially a domestic servant.

The world was awake to the 2nd of May, but Mayfair is not the world, and even the menials of Mayfair lie long abed.1922, Michael Arlen, “Ep./4/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days

More sentences with menial

In feudal days lay brothers were usually uneducated commoners, who did most menial, manual labor while the learned priestly monks held the more spiritual jobs.From the entry lay brother
A scut puppy is usually a medical student or a nurse who does menial tasks.2003, Virginia Gayl Salazar, Gone: A Sci Fi about Cloning, New York, N.Y.; Lincoln, Neb.: Writers Club Press, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 144. From the entry scut
They were no longer the oppressed, wretched teen menials who must take orders, toe the line.1976 June 7, Nik Cohn, “Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night”, in New York, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 29 Dec 2022. From the entry molest
Winter grew fearsome, forcing the couple to stick close to the cave with nothing but menial chores to occupy their time.2012, George Groves Jr, Eden... Closed. From the entry snowwoman
Among these varied groups of farmers and menials, there are a chosen few set aside as ambassadors to spiritdom, or shamans, known as bhagats.1971, Charlotte Viall Wiser, William Henricks Wiser, Behind Mud Walls. From the entry spiritdom
This professionalization is a psychological defense of the housewife against being a general “cleaner-upper” and menial servant for her family in a day and age of general work emancipation.2011, Juliet Schor, Douglas B. Holt, The Consumer Society Reader, page 32. From the entry cleaner-upper
You are not doing a lot of heavy thinking when you are schlepping; you are performing useful but perhaps menial labor, usually in the service of someone else.2005, Joe Marasco, The Software Development Edge: Essays on Managing Successful Projects, Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Addison-Wesley, →ISBN. From the entry schlep

Meaning of menial

adjective Of or relating to work normally performed by a servant.
adjective Of or relating to unskilled work.
adjective Servile; low; mean.

Full definition of menial

Questions about menial in a sentence

How do you use menial in a sentence?: Menial is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “In feudal days lay brothers were usually uneducated commoners, who did most menial, manual labor while the learned priestly monks held the more spiritual jobs.”
What is a short sentence with menial?: “a menial wretch”
What does menial mean?: Menial means of or relating to work normally performed by a servant.

Adapted from Wiktionary: menial (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use menial in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/menial. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.