maid
/meɪd
/noun
1A female domestic servant: Mary eventually managed to find a job as a maid...
- An army of servants - maids, footmen, cooks and gardeners - made the luxurious lifestyle of the family possible.
- Every room had maids and servants and butlers all cleaning and decorating his home.
- Most female migrants to the first world find employment as maids or domestics.
Synonyms
female servant, maidservant, housemaid, parlourmaid, serving maid, lady's maid, chambermaid, maid-of-all-work, domestic, drudge, menial;
help, cleaner, cleaning woman/lady, housekeeper, au pair;
Indian amah, bai
British informal daily, skivvy, Mrs Mop
British dated charwoman, charlady, char, cook-general, cook-maid, tweeny
archaic abigail
2 archaic An unmarried girl or young woman.Was this just Andrew's manner - no, but he certainly didn't flirt with the other maids and pretty girls he passed on the streets....
- A young justice, the Governer of the town, saw the young maid and fell in love with her.
- The young fifteen-year-old elven maid paraded from her father's cart to the Market streets.
2.1A virgin.On the eve of St Valentine, a number of young folk - maids and bachelors - would assemble together, and inscribe upon little billets the names of an equal number of maids and bachelors of their acquaintance, throw the whole into a receptacle of some sort, and then draw them lottery-wise - care, of course, being taken that each should draw one of the opposite sex.
Derivatives
maidish
Origin
Middle English: abbreviation of maiden.