Varlet

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈvɑːlÉ™t/

Origin

From Old French varlet. Compare valet.

Full definition of varlet

Noun

1. (obsolete) A servant or attendant.
• 1843, , , book 2, ch. 8, The ElectonThe Winchester Manorhouse has fled bodily, like a Dream of the old Night (...) . House and people, royal and episcopal, lords and varlets, where are they?
2. (historical) Specifically, a youth acting as a knight's attendant at the beginning of his training for knighthood.
3. (archaic) A rogue or scoundrel.
• 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Folio Society 1973, p. 410:My lady to be called a nasty Scotch wh–re by such a varlet!—To be sure I wish I had knocked his brains out with the punchbowl.
• 1886, Henry James, The Bostonians.He was false, cunning, vulgar, ignoble; the cheapest kind of human product.... The white, puffy mother, with the high forehead, in the corner there, looked more like a lady; but if she were one, it was all the more shame to her to have mated with such a varlet, Ransom said to himself, making use, as he did generally, of terms of opprobrium extracted from the older English literature.
4. (obsolete, cards) The jack.

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