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hired help

hired help

7 3.0
People who are paid to do house or farm work
  • noun
translation icon : personal contratado
  • The wealthier families are more likely to have hired help as well, who are constantly cleaning and sanitizing their home.
  • just the hired help
  • need some hired help

And we're just, you know, the best hired help or backdrops.

Examples

  • I have been more selective about my hired help.

    Blog text (20)
  • After breaking her leg, she realized she needed hired help to maintain her apartment.

  • Hey, what am I, the hired help?

  • Looks like problems with the hired help.

  • That was for the benefit of the hired help.

  • Wages are low for hired help; fuel wood is free when gathered by family members or employees; and there are no taxes.

    Academic text (1993)
  • You get kicked out of this rich man's mansion without a word of explanation, treated like the hired help.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • Friends, relatives, houseguests, Dad's business contacts, hired help—every day and frequently every hour you could count on it that something was happening.

    Fiction book (2001)
  • They decided to hire some hired help to manage the large garden and take care of the household chores.

  • The farmer could no longer manage the vast fields alone, so he sought hired help for the harvest season.

Synonyms

help
vshired help
136 1.0

A person hired to do work in a home or restaurant

means external people employed for domestic or farm work not family
hired hand
vshired help
7 3.6

A person paid to do manual work on a farm or ranch

covers both domestic and agricultural workers rather than only farm labor
hired man
vshired help
4 3.2

A man who works on a farm for pay

is neutral in gender and can mean any employed domestic or farm worker
domestic help
vshired help
1 2.6

A person paid to clean and cook in a home

also applies to agricultural workers and groups not only household chores
hired woman
vshired help
4.1

A woman who works on a farm or ranch for pay

is neutral in gender and applies to either domestic or agricultural workers
home help
vshired help
  • UK
3.4

A person who helps older or disabled people with housework and shopping at home

is broader and covers private domestic or agricultural workers as well

How Temporary

day laborer
  • US
11 3.5
hired help
7 3.0

Surface Forms

hired help singular
hired helps plural

Morphology

hired + help

The meaning 'a person or people employed to do domestic or manual work' is directly derived from combining 'hired' (employed for pay) with 'help' (a helper or domestic worker). This adjective+noun composition follows standard English patterns and similar constructions exist cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily understand the phrase.

Etymology

The phrase hired help comes from the simple picture of people being hired to give help during busy times, like extra workers brought in to pick a farm harvest. So it means 'people you pay to do work', not family or regular staff.