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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
janitor
noun
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ the school janitor
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Back on the main road, Robert caught a glimpse of Aziz the janitor.
▪ Born free in South Carolina in 1834, Turner refused to work alongside slaves, so he found work as a janitor.
▪ He assumed that a porter or janitor was usually stationed there to be on call or to answer enquiries.
▪ He was, like Aziz the janitor, definitely wearing one shoe and one slipper.
▪ No janitor had ever been at work here.
▪ Poole and Bowman had often humorously referred to them-selves as caretakers or janitors aboard a ship that could really run itself.
▪ The modern janitor is given that title for having the keys to all doors in a building.
▪ Their work was so secret they had neither janitors nor secretaries.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Janitor

Janitor \Jan"i*tor\, n. [L., fr. janua a door.]

  1. A door-keeper; a porter. [Archaic]

  2. One who is employed to care for a public building, or a building occupied for offices, suites of rooms, etc.; a caretaker; -- the duties may include removal of trash, cleaning of the rooms and public areas, and minor repairs.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
janitor

1580s, "an usher in a school," later "doorkeeper" (1620s), from Latin ianitor "doorkeeper, porter," from ianua "door, entrance, gate," from ianus "arched passageway, arcade" (see Janus) + agent suffix -tor. Meaning "caretaker of a building" first recorded 1708.

Wiktionary
janitor

n. 1 (context chiefly US English) someone who looks after the maintenance and cleaning of a public building. 2 a doorman

WordNet
janitor

n. someone employed to clean and maintain a building

Wikipedia
Janitor

A janitor ( American English, Scottish English), janitress (female), cleaner or caretaker is a person who cleans and maintains buildings such as hospitals, schools and residential accommodation. Janitors' primary responsibility is as a cleaner. In some cases, they will also carry out maintenance and security duties. A similar position, but usually with more managerial duties and not including cleaning, is occupied by building superintendents in the United States. Cleaning is one of the most commonly outsourced services.

Janitor (Scrubs)

The Janitor is a fictional character, played by actor Neil Flynn in the American comedy-drama Scrubs. Though he is a janitor at Sacred Heart, he is rarely referred to as the janitor, but rather just called Janitor.

Neil Flynn was originally billed as a recurring guest star throughout Season 1, although he appeared in all 24 episodes of that season. He was promoted to a series regular beginning with Season 2 and remained a regular through to Season 8. He made his final appearance in the Season 9 premiere, " Our First Day of School", as a guest star.

Janitor appeared in every episode during the first eight seasons except Season 2's " My Lucky Day" and Season 8's " My Last Words", " My Absence" and " My Full Moon".

Janitor (disambiguation)

A janitor is a person who takes care of a building.

Janitor may also be:

  • Janitor fish, Pterygoplichthys
  • Janitor Joe, a DOS game
  • Janitor Joe (band), an American noise rock band
  • Janitor (Scrubs), a character on the NBC television comedy series Scrubs
  • Janitors Of Tomorrow, album released by the band Gas Huffer in 1991
  • President (game), a card game sometimes known as "Janitor" where players race to get rid of all their cards
  • The New Janitor, comedy from Keystone Studios featuring Charlie Chaplin

Usage examples of "janitor".

He coughed to cover the copy completion bleep, then palmed the disk, slipping it into the trashcan by the door as the janitor moved into Processing to sweep.

Roth is introduced to flight directors, deputy flight directors, flight surgeons, ground controllers, cosmonauts, former cosmonauts, Energia executives, TsUP administrators, several chain-smoking engineers, and a janitor.

Apparently there was some sort of janitor inside his head, a neatnik who had decided Jonesy was going to be here for awhile and so the place ought to be at least tolerably clean.

Augustus Brine crawled out, jangling his huge key ring as if it were a talisman of power sent down by the janitor god.

One of those colored men who soften the trade of janitor in many of the smaller apartment-houses in New York by the sweetness of their race let the Marches in, or, rather, welcomed them to the possession of the premises by the bow with which he acknowledged their permit.

We were all happy: Kobyella had kept his pride, Jan Bronski had found all his skat cards including the seven of spades, and Oskar had a new drum which beat against his knee at every step while Jan and a man whom Jan called Victor carried the janitor, weak from loss of blood, downstairs to the storeroom for undeliverable mail.

And a swimming pool would be on their lawn the day after to be shared with another nice couple like them, and the children could gambol on the grassy sward unmenaced by city traffic, and they would spit right in the eye of the city apartment-house janitor after telling him they were getting out of the crowded, evil-smelling, budget-devouring, paper-walled, sticky-windowed, airless, lightless, privacyless hole in the wall forever.

Cleggett, the three detectives, Jefferson the genial coachman, and Washington Artillery Lamb, the janitor and butler of the house boat Annabel Lee, a negro as large and black as Jefferson himself, took a two-hour trick with the spades and then lay down and slept while Abernethy, Kuroki, Elmer, Calthrop, George the Greek, and Farnsworth dug for an equal length of time.

As a young man, Barnett built up his savings in an old coffee can on a cupboard shelf by picking cotton stalks as a field hand, working as a schoolhouse janitor, operating an outdoor barbershop, and organizing a fourteen-piece brass band that played county fairs across the state, with Barnett playing the French horn.

The janitor was a long-legged Brooklynite who knew plenty of swear-words.

Retzak resumed his pattern of thievery and transitory labor, working as a ditchdigger, a cook, a janitor at a school, even a foot-courier for a small independent bank.

What happens when all the janitors and garbage men and ditchdiggers and assembly-line workers decide to quit?

After watching the wretched mockery of dramaturgical art every day at the New Empire Theater where he worked as janitor, the chance to see real theater again would be like a breath of clean air.

When he was surprised by the respondings he blinded them with the flash and ran into the performance space, set up the fuses and the digital recorder to make them think he was still inside, changed into the janitor outfit and ran out the second door.

Carrying their photos of Harold Gerber, they set out to talk to priests, rectors, janitors, and anyone else who might have seen Gerber on the night Ellerbee was murdered.