Definition of HENCHMAN

Did You Know?

The earliest known examples of henchman in written English show it being used as a term for a squire or a page, but the word may have seen earlier use with the meaning "groom." It first appeared in Middle English at the beginning of the 15th century and is a combination of Old English hengest ("a male horse") and man. In the late 1700s, henchman began to be used for the personal attendant of a Scottish Highland chief. This sense, made familiar to many English readers by Sir Walter Scott, led to the word's use in the broader sense of "right-hand man," which in turn evolved into the other meanings.

Examples of henchman in a Sentence

a gangster surrounded by his henchmen

Recent Examples on the Web

In the subgenre of movies about Nazi hunters and Holocaust revenge-seekers, fugitive henchmen of Hitler represent monsters in hiding, having melted into society as the world moved on. — John Jurgensen, WSJ, "In ‘Operation Finale,’ Another Nazi Gets His Comeuppance," 27 Aug. 2018 Meanwhile, Albuquerque's drug world, the rivalry between traffickers Gus Fring and Hector Salamanca and their respective, frightening henchmen, begins to take center stage in the new episodes. — Taylor Antrim, Vogue, "Better Call Saul," 3 Aug. 2018 Anyone with a smidgen of knowledge about healthcare understood that the right-to-try legislation signed by President Trump on Wednesday was a scam, perpetrated by the Koch brothers and their henchmen. — Michael Hiltzik, latimes.com, "GOP senator reveals the truth: Right-to-try bill was a scam tailored to harm public health," 4 June 2018 Stalin and his henchmen targeted spies, wreckers and counter-revolutionaries in every corner of Soviet society, but especially among his rivals, real or imagined, within the Communist Party. — Will Englund, Washington Post, "Why Trump’s ‘enemy of the people’ bluster can’t be compared to Stalin’s savage rule," 17 Jan. 2018 The Silence of Others chronicles a growing grassroots campaign among victims of the old regime who are seeking to overturn the Amnesty Law and drag Franco's surviving henchmen to justice. — Stephen Dalton, The Hollywood Reporter, "'The Silence of Others': Film Review | Berlin 2018," 21 Feb. 2018 And, because Trump still doesn’t realize that the employees of the DOJ are not his personal henchmen, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) tweeted a word just to remind the president how this works. — Stephen A. Crockett Jr., The Root, "Trump’s Bullying of the Justice Department Again Must Mean the Russia Investigation Is Heating Up," 21 May 2018 Numan Acar: plays Nakim, head of the palace guards and one of Jafar's henchmen. — Sydney Odman, The Hollywood Reporter, "'Aladdin': Everything to Know About the Live-Action Remake of the Disney Classic," 5 July 2018 His henchmen that day had killed a U.S. congressman and others who'd come to Jonestown to investigate charges of abuse. — Will Higgins, Indianapolis Star, "She woke up in Jonestown — everyone was dead," 13 July 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'henchman.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.