maidenhead

• maydenhead (obsolete)

From maiden +‎ -head.

maidenhead (countable and uncountable, plural maidenheads)

1. (uncountable) Virginity.

   Synonyms: maidhood, maidenhood

   • 1713, Sir John Willes, The Speech that was Intended to Have Been Spoken by the Terræ-Filius: In the Theatre at O----d, July 13, 1713, Had Not His Mouth Been Stopp'd by the V. Ch------r:

     Put in but little Silver or Gold, for if you do, you quite spoil the Compoſition ; but inſtead thereof, add of Tradeſmens Bills for Cloaths, to the Value of 100 l. [¶] Laſtly, Take away the Girl's Maidenhead, and then the Compoſition is fit for Uſe.

   • 1760, John Dryden, The Miscellaneous Works: Containing All His Original Poems, Tales, and Translations, page 367:

     Gallants, a bashful poet bids me say,
     He's come to lose his maidenhead to-day.
     Be not too fierce; for he's but green of age,
     And ne'er, till now, debauch'd upon the stage.

   • 1951, Geoffrey Chaucer, translated by Nevill Coghill, The Canterbury Tales: Translated into Modern English (Penguin Classics), Penguin Books, published 1977, page 363:

     My lord, […] / I brought you nothing else it may be said / But faith and nakedness and maidenhead.

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     1900, John Gower, The English Works of John Gower:

     She prayed to Pallas, and by her help escaped from him in the form of a crow, rejoicing more to keep her maidenhead white under the blackness of the feathers than to lose it and be adorned with the fairest pearls.

   • 1995, Ruth H. Finnegan, Margaret Orbell, Reader in Maori Head of Department of Maori Margaret Orbell, South Pacific Oral Traditions, Indiana University Press, →ISBN, page 70:

     So the reference to the plucking of the ginger flower is again an indirect allusion to the taking of the girl's maidenhead .

   • 2004, Yu Jin Ko, Mutability and Division on Shakespeare's Stage, page 70:

     The gender reversals that pervade this play continue mischievously in the man's maidenhead being the undisclosed secret.

   • 2004, Margaret Doner, Merlin's Handbook for Seekers and Starseeds, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 94:

     “ […] He said that Katheryn told him he should have her maidenhead, though it be painful to her. I told him to be gone with his empty promises of marriage. But I doubt not that Mr. Mannox has known her intimately.”

   • 2006, C. Harol, Enlightened Virginity in Eighteenth-Century Literature, Springer, →ISBN, page 87:

     […] a young virgin makes an even trade of her maidenhead for a hat that she desires. She negotiates with the haberdasher, who originally stipulated for her maidenhead plus a crown […]

   • 2009, The Milieu and Context of the Wooing Group, page 141:

     The penis imagery becomes apparent: the nails are 'blunt' and 'large', designed to push through the fair skin in body parts (feet, hands) that had earlier been described in erotically-charged language. As if losing his maidenhead, Christ's body 'bursts' when entered, bringing forth a gush of blood that mars his white (womanly) skin.

   • 2015, Colin Wilson, A Casebook of Murder:

     Almost immediately afterwards, Scanlan discovered that the marriage was legal; Ellie was his wife. He began to feel that he had paid an exceptionally high price for his maidenhead.

2. (anatomy) The hymen.
   • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maidenheads; take it in what sense thou wilt.

• maidenliness