English Online Dictionary. What means maiden? What does maiden mean?
English
Etymology
From Middle English mayden, meiden, from Old English mæġden (“girl”), originally a diminutive of mæġeþ (“girl”) via diminutive suffix -en, from Proto-West Germanic *magaþ, from Proto-Germanic *magaþs. Equivalent to maid + -en.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈmeɪdən/
- Rhymes: -eɪdən
Noun
maiden (plural maidens)
- (now chiefly literary) A girl or an unmarried young woman.
- A female virgin.
- (obsolete, dialectal) A man with no experience of sex, especially because of deliberate abstention.
- A maidservant.
- A clothes maiden.
- (now rare) An unmarried woman, especially an older woman.
- (horse racing) A racehorse without any victory, i.e. one having a "virgin record".
- (horse racing) A horse race in which all starters are maidens.
- (historical) A Scottish counterpart of the guillotine.
- (cricket) A maiden over.
- (obsolete) A machine for washing linen.
- (Wicca) Alternative form of Maiden
Synonyms
- (unmarried (young) female): bachelorette
Derived terms
Related terms
- maid
Translations
Adjective
maiden (not comparable)
- Virgin.
- (of a female, human or animal) Without offspring.
- Like or befitting a (young, unmarried) maiden.
- (figurative) Being a first occurrence or event.
- (cricket) Being an over in which no runs are scored.
- Fresh; innocent; unpolluted; pure; hitherto unused.
- (of a fortress) Never having been captured or violated.
- (of a tree) Grown from seed and never pruned.
Synonyms
- maidenly
Derived terms
Translations
Anagrams
- Damien, Eidman, Manide, Median, Medina, Midean, aidmen, demain, maenid, mained, median, medina, meidan
Finnish
Alternative forms
- maitten
Noun
maiden
- genitive plural of maa
Anagrams
- median
Scots
Alternative forms
- (obsolete, Older Scots) maidin, madin
Etymology
From Middle English mayden, Old English mægden; compare Scottish Gaelic maighdeann. Attested in Older Scots from the 12th century.
Noun
maiden (plural maidens)
- (archaic) maiden, a girl, an unmarried young woman
- (archaic, attributive or in compounds) (something) early, immature, first
- maiden egg ― the first egg laid by a young hen
- maiden-chance ― first opportunity
- (archaic) a servant girl, a maid
- (archaic) the last sheaf of grain harvested, decorated with ribbons and regarded as a talisman; (by extension) the end of the harvest
- Synonyms: kirn, clyack, hare
- (historical) [from 16th century] an instrument similar to a guillotine used for capital punishment
- (obsolete) [18th to 20th century] the eldest daughter of a landowner or wealthy farmer
Verb
maiden (third-person singular simple present maidens, present participle maidenin, simple past maident, past participle maident)
- (obsolete, transitive) to act as maiden cummer (mother's assistant) at a christening
- maiden the bairn ― look after the child
References
- “maiden, n., v.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.