"Jill-of-all-trades and mistress of none" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "Jills-of-all-trades and mistresses of none",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "Jills-of-all-trades and mistresses of none"
      },
      "expansion": "Jill-of-all-trades and mistress of none (plural Jills-of-all-trades and mistresses of none)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "Jill of all trades"
        },
        {
          "word": "mistress of none"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1876, W[illiam] E[dward] Wilcox, “Hash”, in Spa Sketches, &c., London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.; Scarborough: Theakston and Co., […], page 93",
          "text": "And has your dismay decreased when, having made your moan, the excellent lady says cheerfully, that Sarah, the “general servant”—a Jill-of-all-trades and mistress of none—shall try her hand at a “hash?”",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1883, R[ichard] E[rnest] N[owell] Twopeny, “Servants”, in Town Life in Australia, London: Elliot Stock, […], page 50",
          "text": "Directly you come to incomes below a thousand a year, the number of servants is often reduced to a maid-of-all-work, more or less competent according to her wages, which run from seven to fifteen shillings a week. At the former price she knows absolutely nothing; at the latter something of everything. She cooks, washes, sweeps, dusts, makes the beds, clears the baths, and answers the door. All is grist that comes to her mill; and if she is Jill-of-all-trades and mistress of none, one must admit that an English-bred servant would not be one quarter so suitable to colonial requirements.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1987, Nursing Times, Nursing Mirror, page 5",
          "text": "The question has to be asked: are theatre nurses making the best use of their skills? Or are they being used to plug the gaps in the theatre service and so becoming Jills-of-all-trades and mistresses of none?",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1998, “Childhood and Adolescence”, in Sara Heller Mendelson, Patricia [Marcia] Crawford, editors, Women in Early Modern England, 1550–1720, Oxford: Clarendon Press, section “Service”, page 102",
          "text": "Many substantial yeoman or ‘middling’ households included two maidservants at most; artisans’ or husbandmen’s families could afford only a single one. Thus the typical female servant was the Jill-of-all-trades and mistress of none.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004, Joan Kilby, chapter 11, in Family Matters, Harlequin, page 187",
          "text": "The previous owner built the gate but I’m responsible for the nails. I’m a Jill-of-all-trades and mistress of none.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Susanne James, “The British Billionaire’s Innocent Bride”, in Undressed by the Billionaire, Mills & Boon, published 2013, page 38",
          "text": "‘And you’re…Bea?’ she asked shyly. ‘That’s right, dear—Jill-of-all-trades and mistress of none!’",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Alternative form of Jill of all trades, mistress of none."
      ],
      "id": "en-Jill-of-all-trades_and_mistress_of_none-en-noun-PoduLBuA",
      "links": [
        [
          "Jill of all trades, mistress of none",
          "Jill of all trades, mistress of none#English"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "alt-of",
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "Jill-of-all-trades and mistress of none"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "Jills-of-all-trades and mistresses of none",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "Jills-of-all-trades and mistresses of none"
      },
      "expansion": "Jill-of-all-trades and mistress of none (plural Jills-of-all-trades and mistresses of none)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "alt_of": [
        {
          "word": "Jill of all trades"
        },
        {
          "word": "mistress of none"
        }
      ],
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1876, W[illiam] E[dward] Wilcox, “Hash”, in Spa Sketches, &c., London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co.; Scarborough: Theakston and Co., […], page 93",
          "text": "And has your dismay decreased when, having made your moan, the excellent lady says cheerfully, that Sarah, the “general servant”—a Jill-of-all-trades and mistress of none—shall try her hand at a “hash?”",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1883, R[ichard] E[rnest] N[owell] Twopeny, “Servants”, in Town Life in Australia, London: Elliot Stock, […], page 50",
          "text": "Directly you come to incomes below a thousand a year, the number of servants is often reduced to a maid-of-all-work, more or less competent according to her wages, which run from seven to fifteen shillings a week. At the former price she knows absolutely nothing; at the latter something of everything. She cooks, washes, sweeps, dusts, makes the beds, clears the baths, and answers the door. All is grist that comes to her mill; and if she is Jill-of-all-trades and mistress of none, one must admit that an English-bred servant would not be one quarter so suitable to colonial requirements.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1987, Nursing Times, Nursing Mirror, page 5",
          "text": "The question has to be asked: are theatre nurses making the best use of their skills? Or are they being used to plug the gaps in the theatre service and so becoming Jills-of-all-trades and mistresses of none?",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1998, “Childhood and Adolescence”, in Sara Heller Mendelson, Patricia [Marcia] Crawford, editors, Women in Early Modern England, 1550–1720, Oxford: Clarendon Press, section “Service”, page 102",
          "text": "Many substantial yeoman or ‘middling’ households included two maidservants at most; artisans’ or husbandmen’s families could afford only a single one. Thus the typical female servant was the Jill-of-all-trades and mistress of none.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2004, Joan Kilby, chapter 11, in Family Matters, Harlequin, page 187",
          "text": "The previous owner built the gate but I’m responsible for the nails. I’m a Jill-of-all-trades and mistress of none.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Susanne James, “The British Billionaire’s Innocent Bride”, in Undressed by the Billionaire, Mills & Boon, published 2013, page 38",
          "text": "‘And you’re…Bea?’ she asked shyly. ‘That’s right, dear—Jill-of-all-trades and mistress of none!’",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Alternative form of Jill of all trades, mistress of none."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Jill of all trades, mistress of none",
          "Jill of all trades, mistress of none#English"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "alt-of",
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "Jill-of-all-trades and mistress of none"
}