*maid*

n. [ Bond, a. or n. + maid. ] A female slave, or one bound to service without wages, as distinguished from a hired servant. [ 1913 Webster ]

n., n. See Bridesmaid, Bridesman. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A female friend who attends on a bride at her wedding. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A maidservant who has the care of chambers, making the beds, sweeping, cleaning the rooms, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A lady's maid. [ Obs. ] Johnson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A female servant or maid who dresses provisions and assists the cook. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A female servant whose business is the care of the dairy. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A dairymaid. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } n. A maid that waits at hand; a female servant or attendant. [ wns=2 ] [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Something or someone serving in a subordinate position; as, theology should be the handmaiden of ethics. [ wns=1 ]
Syn. -- handmaid, servant. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. A female servant employed to do housework, esp. to take care of the rooms. [ 1913 Webster ]

Housemaid's knee (Med.), a swelling over the knee, due to an enlargement of the bursa in the front of the kneepan; -- so called because frequently occurring in servant girls who work upon their knees. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. An instrument of torture used in the middle ages, consisting of a box large enough to hold a person, often in the shape of a woman, and having multiple sharp spikes on the inside. Called also the iron maiden of Nuremberg. [ PJC ]

n. A woman employed in the kitchen. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Shortened from maiden. &unr_;. See Maiden. ] 1. An unmarried woman; usually, a young unmarried woman; esp., a girl; a virgin; a maiden. [ 1913 Webster ]

Would I had died a maid,
And never seen thee, never borne thee son. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me. Jer. ii. 32. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A man who has not had sexual intercourse. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Christ was a maid and shapen as a man. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A female servant. [ 1913 Webster ]

Spinning amongst her maids. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Maid is used either adjectively or in composition, signifying female, as in maid child, maidservant. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Zool.) The female of a ray or skate, esp. of the gray skate (Raia batis), and of the thornback (Raia clavata). [ Prov. Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Fair maid. (Zool.) See under Fair, a. --
Maid of honor, a female attendant of a queen or royal princess; -- usually of noble family, and having to perform only nominal or honorary duties. --
Old maid. See under Old. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ Written also midan, meidan, mydan, etc. ] [ Hind. & Per. maidān, fr. Ar. maidān. ] In various parts of Asia, an open space, as for military exercises, or for a market place; an open grassy tract; an esplanade.

A gallop on the green maidan. M. Crawford. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. [ OE. maiden, meiden, AS. maegden, dim. of AS. maegð, fr. mago son, servant; akin to G. magd, mädchen, maid, OHG. magad, Icel. mögr son, Goth. magus boy, child, magaps virgin, and perh. to Zend. magu youth. Cf. Maid a virgin. ] 1. An unmarried woman; a girl or woman who has not experienced sexual intercourse; a virgin; a maid. [ 1913 Webster ]

She employed the residue of her life to repairing of highways, building of bridges, and endowing of maidens. Carew. [ 1913 Webster ]

A maiden of our century, yet most meek. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A female servant. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

3. An instrument resembling the guillotine, formerly used in Scotland for beheading criminals. Wharton. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A machine for washing linen. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Of or pertaining to a maiden, or to maidens; suitable to, or characteristic of, a virgin; as, maiden innocence. “Amid the maiden throng.” Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

Have you no modesty, no maiden shame ? Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Never having been married; not having had sexual intercourse; virgin; -- said usually of the woman, but sometimes of the man; as, a maiden aunt. “A surprising old maiden lady.” Thackeray. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Fresh; innocent; unpolluted; pure; hitherto unused. “Maiden flowers.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Full bravely hast thou fleshed
Thy maiden sword. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Used of a fortress, signifying that it has never been captured, or violated. T. Warton. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

Maiden assize (Eng. Law), an assize which there is no criminal prosecution; an assize which is unpolluted with blood. It was usual, at such an assize, for the sheriff to present the judge with a pair of white gloves. Smart. --
Maiden name, the surname of a woman before her marriage. --
Maiden pink. (Bot.) See under Pink. --
Maiden plum (Bot.), a West Indian tree (Comocladia integrifolia) with purplish drupes. The sap of the tree is glutinous, and gives a persistent black stain. --
Maiden speech, the first speech made by a person, esp. by a new member in a public body. --
Maiden tower, the tower most capable of resisting an enemy. --
maiden voyage the first regular service voyage of a ship. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To act coyly like a maiden; -- with it as an indefinite object. [ 1913 Webster ]

For had I maiden'd it, as many use.
Loath for to grant, but loather to refuse. Bp. Hall. [ 1913 Webster ]

Maiden grass, the smaller quaking grass. --
Maiden tree. See Ginkgo. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Literally, an aunt who has never been married. Figuratively, it is a term used as the prototype of a person who is broadly naive and not wise in worldly ways; as, he knows as much about programming as my maiden aunt. [ PJC ]

n. A small widely branching Western wildflower (Collinsia parviflora) with tiny blue-and-white flowers; found from British Columbia to Ontaria and south to California and Colorado. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. A slow-growing procumbent evergreen shrublet (Gaultheria hispidula) of Northern North America and Japan having white flowers and numerous white fleshy rough-hairy seeds.
Syn. -- creeping snowberry, moxie plum, Gaultheria hispidula. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. See maidenhair. [ PJC ]

n. (Bot.) Any of various small to large terrestrial ferns of the genus Adiantum having very slender graceful stalks and delicate palmately branched fronds, especially (Adiantum pedatum). It is common in the United States, and is sometimes used in medicine. The name is also applied to other species of the same genus, as to the Venus-hair. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A small rock-inhabiting fern (Asplenium trichomanes) of the North temperate zone and Hawaii, having pinnate fronds. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. A deciduous dioecious gymnospermous Chinese tree (Ginkgo biloba) having fan-shaped leaves and fleshy yellow seeds, also called the ginkgo; it exists almost exclusively in cultivation esp. as an ornamental street tree. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ See Maidenhood. ] 1. The state of being a maiden; maidenhood; virginity. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The state of being unused or uncontaminated; freshness; purity. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

The maidenhead of their credit. Sir H. Wotton. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. The hymen, or virginal membrane. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ AS. maegdenhād. See Maid, and -hood. ] 1. The state of being a maid or a virgin; virginity. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Newness; freshness; uncontaminated state. [ 1913 Webster ]

The maidenhood
Of thy fight. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Like a maiden; modest; coy. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality of being maidenly; the behavior that becomes a maid; modesty; gentleness. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Like a maid; suiting a maid; maiden-like; gentle, modest, reserved. [ 1913 Webster ]

Must you be blushing ? . . .
What a maidenly man-at-arms are you become ! Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In a maidenlike manner. “Maidenly demure.” Skelton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (cricket) An over in which no runs are scored. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. A low-growing loosely mat-forming Eurasian pink (Dianthus deltoides) with single crimson-eyed pale pink flowers. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. Maidenhood. [ Obs. ] Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ AS. maegðhād. See Maid, and -hood. ] Maidenhood. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Maid + Marian, relating to Mary, or the Virgin Mary. ] 1. The lady of the May games; one of the characters in a morris dance; a May queen. Afterward, a grotesque character personated in sports and buffoonery by a man in woman's clothes. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A kind of dance. Sir W. Temple. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Pale, like a sick girl. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A female servant. [ 1913 Webster ]

(Bot.) The yellow bedstraw (Galium verum). [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ AS. mere lake, sea. See Mere lake, and maid. ] A fabled marine creature, typically represented as having the upper part like that of a woman, and the lower like a fish; a sea nymph, sea woman, or woman fish. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Chaucer uses this word as equivalent to the siren of the ancients. [ 1913 Webster ]

Mermaid fish (Zool.) the angel fish (Squatina). --
Mermaid's glove (Zool.), a British branched sponge somewhat resembling a glove. --
Mermaid's head (Zool.), a European spatangoid sea urchin (Echinocardium cordatum) having some resemblance to a skull. --
Mermaid weed (Bot.), an aquatic herb with dentate or pectinate leaves (Proserpinaca palustris and Proserpinaca pectinacea). [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A woman who milks cows or is employed in the dairy. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A girl or woman employed to attend and care for children. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Like an old maid; prim; precise; particular; overly fastidious.
Syn. -- fussy, old-womanish. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The condition or characteristics of an old maid. G. Eliot. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A schoolgirl. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The mermaid. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A sea nymph. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A shopgirl. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ 1st pref. un- + maiden. ] To ravish; to deflower. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]