handmaid

Also hand·maid·en

[hand-meyd]

noun

1. something that is necessarily subservient or subordinate to another.

   Ceremony is but the handmaid of worship.

2. a female servant or attendant.

Word History and Origins

Origin of handmaid¹

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

Example Sentences

It had to be the handmaids to take down Boston.

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On top of that list was Aunt Lydia, the ruthless zealot in charge of the handmaids, played so powerfully by Ann Dowd.

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Reactionary centrism and false balance have created their own fantasyland: Rather than preserving and building on what’s best in our civic tradition, as their practitioners imagine, they’ve become witless handmaids in its ongoing destruction.

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Atwood’s 1985 novel about a futuristic patriarchal society where the robed handmaids are forced to bear children for leaders, has reemerged in recent years as a cultural touchstone thanks to the popular TV series.

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But the season's seventh episode was the first time the program portrayed a handmaid dying in childbirth.

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