handmaiden
Britishnoun
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a person or thing that serves a useful but subordinate purpose
logic is the handmaid of philosophy
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archaic a female servant or attendant
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It’s right to hope for “Sinners” to rack up a few gold men, and wise to remember that disappointment is awards season’s sackcloth-clad handmaiden.
From Salon • Mar. 13, 2026
From the journals Metcalfe has surmised that Vivien, herself a brilliant literary scholar and teacher, had willfully lived out her marriage under Blundy’s shadow, the dutiful handmaiden to a literary eminence.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 19, 2025
They were joined by "handmaiden" Kaura Taylor, from Texas, who calls herself Asnat.
From BBC • Sep. 12, 2025
Sophia, the nurse, and Jacobo, the apprentice, and her handmaiden, Amelia.
From Seattle Times • Sep. 30, 2022
Renowned educator Horace Mann saw phrenology as “the guide to philosophy and the handmaiden of Christianity,” and Horace Greeley of “Go West, young man” fame advocated phrenology tests for all railroad engineers.
From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
