valet — ODE · Shobdo

valet /ˈvalɪt

, ˈvaleɪ

▸ noun

1 a man's personal male attendant, who is responsible for his clothes and appearance.

▪ a hotel employee who attends to the clothes of guests:

[as modifier] a valet service.

2 mainly North American English a person employed to clean or park cars:

he handed his keys to the parking valet

[as modifier] valet parking.

▸ verb

( valets, valeting, valeted)

[with object]

1 act as a valet to (a particular man):

one evening when I was valeting him, Mr Charles told me he had met my father.

▪ [no object] work as a valet.

2 clean (a car), especially on the inside:

try not to spill anything on the seat—I just had the thing valeted.

– ORIGIN late 15th century (denoting a footman acting as an attendant to a horseman): from French; related to vassal.