maid
/meɪd/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms maids maiding maided the Maid
- noun (dated or poetic) A girl or an unmarried young woman; maiden.
- noun An adult or adolescent female servant or cleaner (short for maidservant). (In feudal times this could be anyone from a high-ranking assistant to a low-ranking cleaner.)
- noun (archaic) A virgin, now female but originally one of either gender.
- verb (transitive, rare) To serve as lady's maid to, to wait upon.
- proper noun (astronomy, astrology) The constellation and zodiacal sign Virgo.
- proper noun Joan of Arc
Synonyms
damsel maiden ancilla handmaiden lady-in-waiting maidservant servingmaid servingwoman womanservant chambermaid charlady charwoman cleaning lady cleaneress housemaid amah
Etymology
From Middle English mayde, maide, abbreviation of Middle English maiden from Old English mæġden (Old English mǣden). Ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *magaþ, from Proto-Germanic *magaþs (“girl, virgin”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun An unmarried woman; usually, a young unmarried woman; esp., a girl; a virgin; a maiden.
- noun A man who has not had sexual intercourse. [Obs.]
Etymology [Shortened from maiden. . See Maiden.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “maid”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details