Valet Meaning
/ˈvæleɪ/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA man's personal male attendant, responsible for his clothes and appearance.
nounA hotel employee performing such duties for guests.
Sentence Examples
No man is a hero to his valet.
If a restaurant has valet parking it's probably pretty expensive.
CEFR Practice Quiz
At the luxury hotel, the guest gave his car keys to the ____ who would park it.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The hotel provides a ____ service to park the guests' cars and help them with their heavy luggage this afternoon today.
Word Origin & History
Borrowed from Middle French valet, from Old French vaslet, from Medieval Latin *vassellittus, diminutive of Late Latin vassallus (“manservant, domestic, retainer”), from vassus (“servant”), from Gaulish *wassos (“young man, squire”), from Proto-Celtic *wastos (“servant”) (compare Old Irish foss and Welsh gwas). Doublet of varlet.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"A HEROIC dad who helped deliver his new-born baby in the back of his car had to explain to his car valet that he wasn't involved in illegal crime."
— 2017 March 7, Stephen Maguire, “Hero Irish dad reveals he had to tell car valet he ‘wasn’t up to anything illegal’ after wife gave birth on back seat on Donegal road”, in The Irish Sun, archived from the original on 06 Dec 2021:
"You can valet me, can you? Bother valeting me! I like to put on my own clothes, and brush them, too, when they are on; and if I only knew how to black my own boots, by George I should like to do it!"
— 1866, Wilkie Collins, Armadale, London: Smith, Elder & Co., Volume I, Book 2, Chapter 2, p. 163:
"[…] the red-haired boy who had valeted me in the morning appeared in a plain suit of black."
— 1926, Neville Shute, chapter 7, in Marazan, London: Cassell:
"He revealed: “We had been through a lot and I decided the car needed to be cleaned out after Georgina had to deliver the baby in the car.
“You can imagine the scene when I left the car in for valeting. I got some funny looks and I had to explain to the guy that I wasn’t up to anything illegal because it did look a bit like a crime scene.”"
— 2017 March 7, Stephen Maguire, “Hero Irish dad reveals he had to tell car valet he ‘wasn’t up to anything illegal’ after wife gave birth on back seat on Donegal road”, in The Irish Sun, archived from the original on 06 Dec 2021:
"I asked Giacomo if he ever valeted his car, and he twisted his face into a grimace as he replied, “Rarely, but I have done it. Nervous time.”"
— 2012 May 30, Jay Weston, “One of the Most Eligible Bachelors in L.A. Has 55 Ferraris.. and Takes Me for a Drive in One!”, in The Huffington Post, archived from the original on 13 Dec 2025:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
At the luxury hotel, the guest gave his car keys to the ____ who would park it.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The hotel provides a ____ service to park the guests' cars and help them with their heavy luggage this afternoon today.