maiden

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/

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• Rhymes: -eɪdən

Noun

maiden (plural maidens)

1. (now chiefly literary) A girl or an unmarried young woman.
2. (archaic) 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.
   • 1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “Capitulum Quartum”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book XI (in Middle English), by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, →OCLC, leaf 289, recto; republished as H Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur , London: David Nutt, , 1889, →OCLC, page 577:

     As for that ſaid ſire Bors I wille be ſhryuen with a good wylle / Soo ſyr Bors was confeſſyd / and for al wymmen ſir Bors was a vyrgyne / ſauf for one / that was the doughter of kynge Brangorys / and on her he gat a child that hyghte Elayne / and ſauf for her ſyre Bors was a clene mayden […]

     As for that, said Sir Bors, I will be shriven with a good will. So Sir Bors was confessed, and for all women Sir Bors was a virgin, save for one, that was the daughter of King Brangoris, and with her he begat a child that hight Elaine, and save for her Sir Bors was a clean maiden.

4. A maidservant.
5. A clothes maiden.
6. (now rare) An unmarried woman, especially an older woman.
7. (horse racing) A racehorse without any victory, i.e. one having a "virgin record".
8. (horse racing) A horse race in which all starters are maidens.
9. (historical) A Scottish counterpart of the guillotine.
   • 1832, Robert Chambers, The History of Scotland:

     It had been customary during the whole civil war, to decapitate state criminals by the instrument called the maiden; but Montrose was condemned to a more ignominious death , by a gibbet thirty feet high

10. (cricket) A maiden over.
11. (obsolete) A machine for washing linen.
12. (Wicca) Alternative form of Maiden

Synonyms

• (unmarried (young) female): bachelorette

Derived terms

Related terms

• maid

Translations

Adjective

maiden (not comparable)

1. Virgin.
   • 1857–1859, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, The Virginians. A Tale of the Last Century, volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury & Evans, , published 1858–1859, →OCLC:

     a surprising old maiden lady

   • 1859, Charles Dickens, The Haunted House:

     It was just the middle of October when I moved in with my maiden sister […]

2. (of a female, human or animal) Without offspring.
3. Like or befitting a (young, unmarried) maiden.
   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 155, column 2:

     Haue you no modeſty, no maiden ſhame, / No touch of baſhfulneſſe?

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.

   • 2012 May 13, Andrew Benson, “Williams's Pastor Maldonado takes landmark Spanish Grand Prix win”, in BBC Sport‎:

     Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado took his maiden victory and Williams's first since 2004 in a strategic battle with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso.

5. (cricket) Being an over in which no runs are scored.
6. Fresh; innocent; unpolluted; pure; hitherto unused.
   • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, ”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 72, column 2:

     Come Brother Iohn, full brauely haſt thou fleſht thy Maiden ſword.

   • 1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 226, column 2:

     When I am dead, good Wench, / Let me be vs’d with Honor; ſtrew me ouer / With Maiden Flowers, that all the world may know / I was a chaſte Wife, to my Graue: Embalme me, / Then lay me forth (although vnqueen’d) yet like / A Queene, and Daughter to a King enterre me.

7. (of a fortress) Never having been captured or violated.
   • 1631, J. Taylor, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     Victorie forsook him for ever since he ransacked the maiden town of Magdenburg

   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

     But every citizen considered his own honor as bound up with the honor of the maiden fortress.

8. (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

1. 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)

1. (archaic) maiden, a girl, an unmarried young woman
2. (archaic, attributive or in compounds) (something) early, immature, first

   maiden egg ― the first egg laid by a young hen

   maiden-chance ― first opportunity

3. (archaic) a servant girl, a maid
4. (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

5. (historical) an instrument similar to a guillotine used for capital punishment
   • 1843 [1724], Allan Ramsay, “Genty Tibby”, in Alexander Whitelaw, editor, The Book of Scottish Song‎:

     Now strike my finger in a bore, / My wyson with the maiden shore, / Gin I can tell whilk I am for, / ⁠When these twa stars appear thegither.

     Now stretch my finger on the rack, Shear my throat with the maiden, By the time I can tell where I am headed, These two stars appear together.

6. (obsolete) 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)

1. (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.