attendant
/əˈtɛnd(ə)nt
/noun
1A person employed to provide a service to the public in a particular place: a cloakroom attendant...
- There would be no incentive for road users to control the demand for parking, and there would also be no incentive for parking attendants to provide a service.
- ‘Customers have come in saying there are massive queues in all the other garages,’ an attendant at the Cardiff Service Station said.
- It means re-establishing park wardens, bus conductors and platform attendants who provide some community control, and giving people a degree of hope and a sense of community.
Synonyms
steward, waiter, waitress, porter, servant, menial, auxiliary, assistant, helper;
caretaker, keeper, concierge, warden;
North American waitperson, tender;
French garçon
1.1An assistant to an important person; a servant or courtier: a mosaic of the Empress Theodora with her attendants...
- The courtiers, attendants, guards and servants sighed in audible relief.
- Funds were provided for the eight-strong party of noblemen and ladies, their twelve gentlemen attendants and seventy-five servants.
- The effect on the city of Edo was a permanent presence of noblemen and samurai with a huge staff of retainers, attendants and servants.
Synonyms
escort, companion, retainer, aide, assistant, personal assistant, right-hand man, right-hand woman, lady in waiting, equerry, squire, chaperone, guard, bodyguard, minder, custodian;
servant, manservant, valet, gentleman's gentleman, maidservant, maid, butler, footman, page, usher, lackey, flunkey;
North American houseman
informal sidekick, skivvy
North American informal body man
Military, dated batman
2A person who is present on a particular occasion: he had become a regular attendant at chapel...
- He presented certificates of participation to the course attendants.
- For the past five years I have been a regular attendant at the Algico Primary Schools Sports and the lack of parental support has always struck me.
- He was a regular attendant at Our Lady's Day Care Centre, Ballylanders and will be sadly missed by all the patrons.
adjective
1Occurring with or as a result of: the sea and its attendant attractions...
- The last essay, by Blair Ruble, deals with the problems attendant on the creation of new civic or national symbols.
- Nowhere does he emphasize the special moral dangers attendant on an active engagement in war.
- Government policy states that increases in water charges should result in an attendant reduction in commercial rates, yet, both continue to rise.
Synonyms
accompanying, associated, related, connected, concomitant, accessory;
resultant, resulting, consequent
2(Of a person) accompanying another as a companion or assistant: a child in a pram with attendant nursemaid...
- We stepped aside only for a large flock of freshly-shorn sheep that seemed, without attendant farmer or dog, on autopilot back to their field.
- Titian preferred to paint the goddess Diana bathing in a curtained colonnade, with her entourage of nymphs and even an attendant slave girl and small dog.
- He was, on the face of it, no more than an accessory to the theatrically gifted and great, an attendant lord but never Hamlet.
Origin
Late Middle English (as an adjective): from Old French, from atendre 'give one's attention to' (see attend).
Rhymes
- coffee culture
- coffee cup
- coffee essence
- coffee grinder
- coffee house
- coffee klatch
- coffee klatsch
- coffee maker
- coffee mill
- coffee morning
- coffee palace
- coffee pot
- coffee shop
- coffee table
- coffee-table book
- coffee whitener
- coffer
- cofferdam
- coffered
- cofferer
- coffin
- coffin bone
- coffin joint
- coffin nail
- Coffin, William Sloane