chief cook and bottle washer

See also: chief cook and bottle-washer

English

Alternative forms

• chief cook and bottle-washer
• head cook and bottle washer
• head cook and bottle-washer
• head chef and bottle-washer

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

chief cook and bottle washer (plural chief cooks and bottle washers)

1. (humorous, informal) Someone whose responsibilities include absolutely everything, from the highest level (chief cook) to the lowest (bottle washer).

   Synonyms: bottlewasher, do-all, factotum

   Near-synonyms: man Friday, gal Friday

   • 1809, Bartlett Jere Whiting, quoting Abraham B. Lindsley, Love and Friendship; or, Yankee Notions: A Comedy in Three Acts‎^[1], quoted in Early American Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, Dramatic Repository, Shakespeare-Gallery: D Longworth, →ISBN, act II, page 40:

     Why sometimes I acts cook, steward, cabin boy, sailor, mate, and bottle washer, for matter 'f that, for there's on'y four on us aboard on her;