or bedmaker, subs. (Cambridge University).—A charwoman; one who makes the beds and performs other necessary domestic duties for residents in college.
1625–30. The Court and Times of Charles the First, ii. 76. [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, ii. 74]. There are the new substantives … BEDMAKER; this last is found at Cambridge.
1691. Case of Exeter College, 18. For fear she should … lose her place of BEDMAKER.
1716. CIBBER, Love Makes a Man, i. 1, 21. He never spoke six Words to any Woman in his Life, but his BED-MAKER.
1789. PIOZZI, Journey through France, etc., II., 118. The vecchia is here at Rome the common phrase when speaking of your only female servant, a person not unlike an Oxford or Cambridge BED-MAKER in appearance.
