Noun

(en noun)

(obsolete) A servant or attendant.

* 1843 , '', book 2, ch. 8, ''The Electon

The Winchester Manorhouse has fled bodily, like a Dream of the old Night (...) . House and people, royal and episcopal, lords and varlets , where are they?

(historical) Specifically, a youth acting as a knight's attendant at the beginning of his training for knighthood.

(archaic) A rogue or scoundrel.

* 1749 , Henry Fielding, Tom Jones , Folio Society 1973, p. 410:

My lady to be called a nasty Scotch wh–re by such a varlet !—To be sure I wish I had knocked his brains out with the punchbowl.

* 1886 , , The Bostonians .

*:He was false, cunning, vulgar, ignoble; the cheapest kind of human product.... The white, puffy mother, with the high forehead, in the corner there, looked more like a lady; but if she were one, it was all the more shame to her to have mated with such a varlet , Ransom said to himself, making use, as he did generally, of terms of opprobrium extracted from the older English literature.

(obsolete, cards) The jack.

Noun

(es)

An unhappy, unfortunate, or miserable person.

*{{quote-book

, year=1742 , author=Henry Fielding , title=Joseph Andrews , chapter=12 citation , passage=The poor wretch , who lay motionless a long time, just began to recover his senses as a stage-coach came by.}}

*{{quote-book

, year=1789 , author=Watkin Tench , title=The Expedition to Botany Bay , chapter=14 citation , passage=The four unhappy wretches labouring under sentence of banishment were freed from their fetters, to rejoin their former society; and three days given as holidays to every convict in the colony.}}

An unpleasant, annoying person.

*{{quote-book

, year=1740 , author=Samuel Richardson , title=Pamela , chapter=71 citation , passage=Swear to me but, thou bold wretch ! said she, swear to me, that Pamela Andrews is really and truly thy lawful wife, without sham, without deceit, without double-meaning; and I know what I have to say!}}

*{{quote-book

, year=1823 , author=Walter Scott , title=Saint Ronan's Well , chapter=32 citation , passage=I asked that selfish wretch , Winterblossom, to walk down with me to view her distress, and the heartless beast told me he was afraid of infection!}}

(archaic) An exile. (rfex)