Maid Meaning
/meɪd/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA girl or an unmarried young woman; maiden.
nounAn 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.)
Sentence Examples
The maid came in bearing a cake.
The maid announced each guest.
The maid arranged the knives and forks on the table.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
In the large hotel, the ____ cleaned the rooms and made the beds daily.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The ____ cleaned the room and prepared the bed for the guests who were arriving later this afternoon.
Word Origin & History
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”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, […]; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid,[…]—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher."
— 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
"You are betrothed both to a maid and man."
— c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
"And as she did so there came to her a comfortable recollection, an incident of her long-past youth, in the days when she, then Ellen Green, had maided a dear old lady."
— 1913, Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes, The Lodger:
"Virgo, the Maid, guideth the Womb, Midriff and Guts."
— 1668, ‘Godfridus’, The Knowledge of Things Unknown, London: G.P. for G. Sawbridge, page 20:
"The diamond is said to typify innocence, and it is also associated with Virgo, the maid, in the Signs of the Zodiac, whilst the ruby is associated with the sign Aries, the ram."
— 1889 February 7, The Herald, Melbourne, page 4, column 3:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
In the large hotel, the ____ cleaned the rooms and made the beds daily.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The ____ cleaned the room and prepared the bed for the guests who were arriving later this afternoon.