handmaid

[ hand-meyd or hand-meyd-n ]

/ ˈhændˌmeɪd or ˈhændˌmeɪd n /

something that is necessarily subservient or subordinate to another: Ceremony is but the handmaid of worship.

a female servant or attendant.

Nearby words

Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; see origin at hand, maid

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

The Handmaid only finds liberation when she steals out of her room to bed the chauffeur.
The Bizarre Case Against Gay Marriage|Linda Hirshman|January 29, 2010|DAILY BEAST
The book in some cases may be a luxury, but in most cases it is a necessary, while always the handmaid of civilization.
Charles Sumner; His Complete Works, Volume XI (of 20)|Charles Sumner
Painting in Spain was not so much the handmaid, as the bondslave, of the Church.
A Popular Handbook to the National Gallery, Volume I, Foreign Schools|Various
The handmaid Eurycleia is convinced as soon as she has touched the wound upon the hero's foot and felt the well-remembered scar.
Studies of the Greek Poets (Vol I of 2)|John Addington Symonds

Hope is evryboddy's handmaid—she is a sli coquet and promises menny favors, but grants only a fu, and them are badly diskounted.
Josh Billings on Ice|Henry Wheeler Shaw
My mother was handmaid unto my Lady Gertrude his wife, and she spake right well of her mistress.
The White Rose of Langley|Emily Sarah Holt

late 14c., from hand (n.) in the sense in close at hand + maid. Cf. Old English handþegn "personal attendant."