subs. (common).—A drudge: male or female; ‘a servant of either sex’ (GROSE). Also (old) SLAVING-GLOKE.
1821. P. EGAN, Life in London, II. i. The SLAVEY and her Master—the Surgeon and Resurrection Man.
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, I. 472. The first inquiry is for the missus or a daughter, and if they can’t be got at they’re on to the SLAVEYS.
1855. THACKERAY, The Newcomes, xi. He has been instructed to bring soda whenever he hears the word SLAVEY pronounced from above.
1879. J. W. HORSLEY, ‘Autobiography of a Thief,’ in Macmillan’s Magazine, XL. 501. I piped a SLAVEY (servant) come out of a chat (house), so when she had got a little way up the double (turning), I pratted (went) in the house.
1886. Daily Telegraph, 1 April. No well-conducted English girl need be a SLAVEY at all.
1893. P. H. EMERSON, Signor Lippo, xvi. She knew all the cant, and used to palarie thick to the SLAVEYS.
1901. Free Lance, 16 March, 586, 1. Joan Burnett … has inherited both her mother’s and her father’s talent, as all will have noticed who saw her play the curiously pathetic SLAVEY in “The Wedding Guest.”
