below stairs

prep_phrase

Etymology

From below + stairs.

Definitions

  1. On a floor lower than the one a speaker currently occupies

    On a floor lower than the one a speaker currently occupies; below the main floor of a multi-floor building.

    • I’le lock her into her Sister’s Room below Stairs, for to night, there’s no Balcony there.
    • it was talkd, that there was an old gentleman belowstairs whom they fancied to be Sr. Isaac Newton.
    • She felt immensely superior to him suddenly, to all the people below stairs.
  2. In or pertaining to the lowest levels of a large house where the house staff work and are…

    In or pertaining to the lowest levels of a large house where the house staff work and are accommodated, contrasted with above stairs where the owning family reside.

    • It vvas his younger Siſters Chamber, that I vvas in, and as there vvas no Body in the Houſe, but the Maids belovv Stairs, he vvas it may be the ruder: […]
    • […] those fortunate bachelors, or other gentlemen of pleasure, who so manage their entertainment of compromising company that even the austerest housekeeper, occupied and competent below-stairs, never feels obliged to give warning.
  3. Common, vulgar.

    • A paragon must embody liberal democracy. To get its hands dirty defending it is below-stairs.
  4. + 1 more definition
    1. The areas of a large house in which house staff work, or the staff that work there.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for below stairs. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA