Word.ws English Dictionary

what the butler saw

what the butler saw noun: a story or film of titillating activity observed by voyeurism.

what the butler saw: a story or film of titillating activity observed by voyeurism
Image: Russell Lee, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

what the butler saw

  1. (UK, attributive, often, slang) A story or film of titillating activity observed by voyeurism.
    • For the next fifteen years he would make some 500 short films there – conjuring turns, fairy stories, burlesques, what-the-butler-saws, literary adaptations, fantastic voyages and reconstructed newsreels – of which about a fifth have survived.2013 June 1, Christopher Frayling, Mad, Bad and Dangerous?: The Scientist and the Cinema, Reaktion Books, →ISBN, page 48
    • When a male supervisor in Night Shift watches the women working at the machines, the female narrator is reminded of "some pier Peeping Tom, getting the story of 'what the butler saw' from a penny slot machine"2015 December 4, S. Wasson, quoting Inez Holden, Urban Gothic of the Second World War: Dark London, Springer, →ISBN, page 97
  2. (UK, attributive) A mutoscope; an amusement machine that shows a sequence of images or animation, often of a titillating nature, viewed via a peephole
    • There are two main types­—the machine working on the "What the butler saw" principle, where a knob is turned for the answer and the next exciting instalment, and "a programmed text- book" with questions on one side of the page and answers covered up by a flap on the other1963, Brewers' Guild Journal
    • His scheme, which incorporates a 'what the butler saw emporium', two museums, a long bar and a 'fabulous' submerged restaurant has, perhaps more than the professional winners, caught the traditional rich-mix pier-head flavour.1978, The Architects' Journal

Examples of what the butler saw in a sentence

  • In Last Tango, we encounter another cast of off-the-wall characters (does Wales really have this many eccentrics?) as Louie becomes involved in Aberystwyth's 'What the Butler Saw' film industry.2016 March 25, Barry Forshaw, Brit Noir: The Pocket Essential Guide to British Crime Fiction, Film & TV, Oldcastle Books Ltd, →ISBN:
  • Suggesting a 'What The Butler Saw' salacious storyline, the title instead appears to be a juvenile play on the 'Stanley 3-in-1 saw' DIY tool.2025 September 15, Brian J Robb, The The: Every Album, Every Song, Sonicbond Publishing Ltd, →ISBN, page 1855:

Forms of what the butler saw

alternative formwhat-the-butler-saw

Origin of what the butler saw

Usually linked to the 1884 divorce trial of Gertrude Elizabeth Blood and Lord Colin Campbell, at which one key witness was a butler who claimed to have seen Lady Campbell's adultery through a keyhole.

Questions about what the butler saw

What does what the butler saw mean?
What the butler saw means a story or film of titillating activity observed by voyeurism.
How do you use what the butler saw in a sentence?
In Last Tango, we encounter another cast of off-the-wall characters (does Wales really have this many eccentrics?) as Louie becomes involved in Aberystwyth's 'What the Butler Saw' film industry.
What part of speech is what the butler saw?
What the butler saw is a noun.

Words near what the butler saw in the dictionary

  1. what someone says goes
  2. what tangled webs we weave when first we practice to deceive
  3. what that mouth do
  4. what the
  5. what the actual fuck
  6. what the butler saw
  7. what the crap
  8. what the cuss
  9. what the deuce
  10. what the Devil
  11. what the doctor ordered

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: what the butler saw (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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