• Maiden

    Pronunciation

    • IPA: /ˈmeɪdÉ™n/
    • Rhymes: -eɪdÉ™n

    Origin

    From Middle English, from Old English mæġden ("maiden, virgin, girl, maid, servant"), diminutive of mæġþ, mæġeþ ("maiden, virgin, girl, woman, wife") via diminutive suffix -en, from Proto-Germanic *magaþs ("maid, virgin"), from Proto-Indo-European *maghu- ("fellow, bachelor"), equivalent to maid + -en. Cognate with Dutch maagd ("virgin"), Old High German magad ("maiden") (modern German Magd ("maidservant"), Old Irish mug ("slave") and Albanian mag ("a hare's young, hinnulus").

    Full definition of maiden

    Noun

    maiden

    (plural maidens)
    1. (now chiefly literary) A girl or an unmarried young woman.
    2. A female virgin.She's unmarried and still a maiden.
    3. (obsolete, dialectal) A man with no experience of sex, especially because of deliberate abstention.
      • 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book XI:And for all women Sir Bors was a vergyne, sauff for one, that was the doughter of Kynge Braundegorys ..., and sauff for her, Sir Bors was a clene mayden.
    4. A maidservant.
    5. (now rare) An unmarried woman, especially an older woman.
    6. A racehorse without any victory ('virgin record').
    7. (historical) A Scottish counterpart of the guillotine.
    8. (cricket) A maiden over.
    9. (obsolete) A machine for washing linen.
    10. (Wicca) Alternative form of Maiden

    Related terms

    Synonyms

    Adjective

    maiden

    1. Virgin.
      • Thackeraya surprising old maiden lady
    2. (of a female, human or animal) Without offspring.
    3. Like or befitting a (young, unmarried) maiden.
      • ShakespeareHave you no modesty, no maiden shame?
    4. (figuratively) Being a first occurrence or event.The Titanic sank on its maiden voyage.After Edmund Burke's maiden speech, William Pitt the Elder said Burke had "spoken in such a manner as to stop the mouths of all Europe" and that the Commons should congratulate itself on acquiring such a member.
    5. (cricket) Being an over in which no runs are scored.
    6. Fresh; innocent; unpolluted; pure; hitherto unused.
      • Shakespearemaiden flowers
      • ShakespeareFull bravely hast thou fleshed
        Thy maiden sword.
    7. Of a fortress, never having been captured or violated.

    Synonyms

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