maid
part of speech
noun (a maid, maids)
meaning for a pupil
1) A maid is a woman whose job is to clean and do housework in a hotel or someone's house. tree →
2) (old use) A maid is a girl or young unmarried woman: «a fair maid». tree →
3) A bridesmaid or maid of honour is a girl or woman who helps the bride at a wedding. tree →
4) An old maid is an older woman who has never married, a term that is now seen as old-fashioned and sometimes unkind. tree →
sense in the lessons
In stories and history lessons, rich families had maids and servants; in fairy tales a «maid» is a young woman. In hotels today, room cleaners are sometimes called maids, though «housekeeper» is more polite. Phrases: «maid of honour», «housemaid», «old maid» (old-fashioned, unkind), «Maid Marian» (from Robin Hood).
examples
- The hotel maid cleaned our room every morning. tree →
- In the old house, a maid lit the fires at dawn. tree →
- The milk maid carried two buckets on a pole. tree →
- My sister will be the maid of honour at the wedding. tree →
- Maid Marian was Robin Hood's friend. tree →
- The story tells of a poor maid who married a prince. tree →
- Long ago, many girls went into service as maids. tree →
- What is the old maid thinking of? tree →
note
Countable: maids. Homophone: «made» (past of make) sounds the same. «Old maid» is old-fashioned and unkind; also a card game. Today «cleaner» or «housekeeper» is the more respectful job title.
In the corpora
- And the man increased exceedingly, and had large flocks, and maid-servants and men-servants, and camels and asses.
- Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire?
- Corn shall make the young men flourish, and new wine the maids.
- I made a covenant with mine eyes; how then should I look upon a maid?
- If I did despise the cause of my man-servant, or of my maid-servant, when they contended with me —
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «maid» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.