below stairs
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.09 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
3
Syllables
10
Unique Chars
Meaning
prep_phrase
On a floor lower than the one a speaker currently occupies; below the main floor of a multi-floor building.
Dated
prep_phrase
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.
British usage
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "a. 1631, John Donne, letter to H. Goodere, in Letters to Severall Persons of Honour written by John Donne, London: Richard Marriot, 1651, pp. 158-159, My daughter Constance is at this time with me; or the emptinesse of the town, hath made me, who otherwise live upon the almes of others, a houskeeper, for a moneth; and so she is my servant below stairs, and my companion above:"
- "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."